The chairman of Tekedia Capital, Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe has described the Naira to Dollar predictions by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan analyses with no ‘real value’.
The Nigerian currency, in recent times, has hovered to upto ₦1,600 against the Dollar, with economic analysts projecting significant turnaround.
Goldman Sachs says the Naira will appreciate to N1,200 in the next 12 months.
“Goldman Sachs analysts Andrew Matheny and Bojosi Morule have projected a significant turnaround for Nigeria’s currency, foreseeing a remarkable appreciation to N1,200 against the US dollar within the span of 12 months.”
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“Also, in June 2023, JP Morgan projected that the naira, which was at N755/$1 then, would appreciate in the coming months, trading around N600 to a dollar.”
A statement by the institution further said “While it will take a few days for USD/NGN spot to settle, we fully expect an initial overshoot towards the parallel market rate of -750 or higher, after which, we expect USD/NGN to settle in the high 600s over [the] coming months.”
Reacting to these projections on his X handle @ndekekwe however, Ekekwe said “Not sure we should celebrate N1,200/$ since it took Naira about 50 years to get from about N1/$ to N415/$, only to crash to N1,600/$ in 9 months:
According to him, “Do not waste your time thinking that Wall Street banks understand what is happening in Nigeria. From JP Morgan to GS and even IMF, all of them called it wrong after the floating.
“Their assumptions about Nigeria are off by miles and those predictions have no real values. I mean they should not be wasting their time sharing opinions on where the Naira will settle, since the $billions we were promised will come from investors, after floating the Naira are yet to arrive.
“If Nigeria had attracted say $50 billion post-float, things would have normalized. But the problem is that the floating has depressed investments, triggering a paralysis across the nation.
“If the government can find how to adjust for that, at least Naira will stabilize,” he tweeted.
