Emirate airlines have join other airlines plying the Nigerian air space to ask for payment of airfare in United States dollars rather than Naira. In fact pay with any other currency rather than Naira. This is not unrelated to the unpredictable exchange rate of Naira in the parallel exchange market. These airlines are operating with aeroplanes on lease and lease is paid in dollars. Therefore it makes sense that they should collect their fare in dollars. Another reason is that they lost a lot of money when they found it hard to purchase dollars from the government of Nigeria at the beginning of this present administration. This is a sensitive issue because other Nigerians who have their wealth stored in Naira are also losing value of their wealth that are hard earned. To make matters worse the government is now charging higher taxes on dollars sent to Nigeria from abroad. Nobody wants to send money anymore especially through Western Union. Some Nigerians now trade by bata in which case they give a fellow Nigerian abroad the dollar they want to send home and the person gives them Naira that is already in Nigeria and there is no need to send any money. I think free flow of dollars should be encouraged. Any Nigerian that wants to sell goods in dollars should be allowed until such a time we figure out how to arrest the steep decline in value of Naira. Otherwise, when importers sell in Naira and cannot buy dollars to replenish their stock due to the fall in value of naira, that will represent another job lost and another citizen in distress.
No comments:
Post a Comment