Senator Ali Ndume says the federal government is not losing out from the naira depreciation against the dollar but gaining more revenue to fund its 2024 budget.
Ndume explained that the 2024 budget, which was presented last November, is a ‘dollarized’ budget in terms of income, as most of the government’s revenue comes from crude oil exports, which are priced in dollars.
Speaking during an interview with Channels Television monitored by DAILY POST, Ndume noted that as the value of the dollar increased, the government would have more naira to spend on its expenditure, which is denominated in naira.
He further stated that Nigeria’s major product, crude oil, is still in high demand in the global market, stressing that the country would benefit from the current dollar-to-naira exchange rate.
“Don’t forget that this budget is a ‘dollarized’ budget, especially in terms of income. And when it comes to the terms of the expenditure, it’s in naira.
“So if we are getting our money in dollars and the value of the dollar is up, that means we will have more naira in terms of what we spend because we are not spending in dollars, we are spending in naira, while we are getting our revenue in dollars.
“Truly, the value of naira against the dollar has fallen but we are selling our major product that generates income in dollars. And that means any dollar we get now will also be valued at the current dollar-to-naira exchange rate.
“So if you do the analysis critically, it may mean if you balance it up, we may have more money to fund our budget. So technically, Nigeria is even benefiting from the dollar-to-naira hike,” he added.
Nigerian government benefiting from dollar-to-Naira increas – Senator Ndume
