Ndume Reveals How FG Is Benefiting From Dollar Hike

Borno South Senator, Ali Ndume, has disclosed that the Nigerian government benefits from the dollar-to-naira increase.

Naija News reports that Ndume, in an interview with Channels Television on Thursday, analysed how the government is not losing out from the naira depreciation against the dollar but is gaining more revenue to fund its 2024 budget.

According to the senator, the 2024 budget presented last November by President Bola Tinubu is a ‘dollarized’ budget in terms of income, and most of the government’s revenue comes from crude oil exports, which are priced in dollars.

Ndume further explained that as the dollar’s value increased, the government would have more naira to spend on its expenditure, denominated in naira.

He said, “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.”