Senator Ali Ndume has said the federal government is not losing out from the naira depreciation against the dollar, but rather gaining more revenue to fund its 2024 budget.
He explained that the 2024 budget, which was presented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last November, is a ‘dollarised’ 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, 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 added that Nigeria’s major product, crude oil is still in high demand in the global market, and that the country will benefit from the current dollar-to-naira exchange rate.
He said, “Don’t forget that this budget is a ‘dollarised’ budget, especially in terms of the 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 we generate 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.”
