Nigeria-China currency deal to pressure on dollar
Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama on Wednesday said the currency deal signed between Nigeria and China during the recent visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to China would boost the economies of both countries.The minister, who was briefing State House correspondents in Abuja on the outcome of the president’s visit to China, noted that the currency deal would eventually make Nigeria a hub of the Chinese currency.
According to him, the Chinese are looking for a hub in West Africa, stressing that Ghana is interested in being the hub for the currency to circulate it for those who want to use it but not compulsory.
He, however, explained that it had become attractive for China to make Nigeria the hub because of the size of the country and economy, adding that the currency deal would also give the country more flexibility.
“So, if Nigeria is buying Chinese goods, for instance, it will be in our interest to use the Yuan because we know there is a lot of squeeze for the dollar.
“But, we still use the dollar. But if it is not enough and there are some people who want to invest in the country, instead of crying that they cannot take dollar out, there might be Yaun that they would be happy to take out because it is now internationalised as a currency and they can use it.
“So, it gives us a much larger option.
“As you know, a lot of importers now are complaining that they are not able to access the dollars to buy goods and things like that.
“What it takes is that as the Chinese economy goes strong, there are some pressures on them from the trading partners, international financial institutions. They agreed that the money should be internationalised.
“They were protecting it also. They did not allow it to be fully exchangeable. But now, their economy is fully strong; they are looking for a way to internationalise the currency.
“Now, they were saying essentially that they wanted to segment it,’’ he said.
The minister said that for Southern Africa, South Africa was going to be the sort of a hub for the currency.
Super Eagles interim coach appointed
The technical sub-committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has appointed its National Technical Director, Shuaibu Amodu, as the new interim coach of the Super Eagles.He will lead a quartet of Salisu Ibrahim, Alloy Agu, Imama Amakapabo and Kennedy Boboye, for the two international friendly games against Mali and Luxembourg.
The NFF technical committee made the recommendation to the Executive Committee after hours of deliberation and argued that the two NPFL coaches, Amakapabo and Boboye, were included for exposure to top level football.
Amakapabo coaches Enugu Rangers, while Boboye is Abia Warriors’ manager.
Samson Siasia and Emmanuel Amuneke, who were in charge before now have been dropped, but Alloy Agu remains the goalkeeper trainer.
“Part of the recommendations we gave to the Executive Committee of the federation is that Amodu will supervise the technical crew to be headed by the Salisu,” a source told Leadership.
“We also recommended the drafting of two league coaches into the crew and we went for Rangers and Abia Warriors chief coaches, just as we settled for Agu as the goalkeeper trainer.
“We went for the two league coaches to expose them with those two matches. I know that Nigerians will ask why Siasia and Amunike did not continue with the team, but we all know that they are very much engaged and committed with their teams.
“Our plans and expectations will be to provide every help to Siasia to win the Olympic Games trophy. The appointment will be for the two friendly matches, after which we will continue with the hiring of a substantive coach for the team”, he added.
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