Bolaji Jimoh 
Former member of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), Sam Olofin has said that the naira needs to be saved from the clutches of “powerful operators” in the parallel market, which he described as a “monster.”
Olofin, an economics professor made this known while speaking at the Nigerian Economic Society’s 2024 Public Lecture on Thursday in Ibadan, Oyo State, with the theme “Recent Developments in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market: Issues, Options, and the Way Forward.”
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Olofin noted: “As we speak the naira value against major foreign currencies, especially the dollar, has continued its free fall and stands at over N1,500 to a dollar.
“Our attention should be focused on this powerful segment of the market, the so-called parallel or black market. We have succeeded either deliberately or unwittingly in creating a monster that has been well-protected.
“It is either we bring this monster under control or allow it to strangulate the naira. As things stand at the moment merely wishing that the ‘willing buyer and willing seller’ model would do the job would be a mere fantasy.”
