 All right, Frank Eliana, who is of the business day, is my guest this morning as we take a look at what World Bank is saying about our currency. The World Bank says that the Naira has weakened by 40% against the U.S. dollar since the mid-June devaluation, although these measures are intended to improve the fiscal and external accounts of the nation. The inflationary effects in the near term can erode the purchasing power of households and weigh on economic activity. In June 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria directed deposit money banks to remove the rate cap on the Naira at the official investors and exporters window of the foreign exchange market and allow the free float of the Naira against the dollar and other global currencies. Well since then, the Naira has fallen from 473 Naira to around 800 Naira officially. As we are celebrating our 63rd Independence anniversary, we want to take a look at how the Naira has fallen from grace to grace, a currency which was originally the British Pounds and was changed in 1973 to the Naira was stronger than the U.S. dollar, but was at par with the British Pounds. But today, look at where it is against this same U.S. dollar, 800 Naira and 1000 plus. We have been joined by Frank Olianya, who is of the business day. Hello Frank. Good morning and it's a pleasure to be on the show. It was a pleasure to have you, Frank. Now how serious are we in changing this situation with a minor economy based on oil exports, solely based on oil exports? How serious are we as we talk about improving our economy? It's very, very frank with you actually. And again, on this new administration, we created that from the day one that starts together, first of all maybe, and then also new strategies in showing a little bit more transparency. But I don't think, I think we are like from May to October now, I think we're like almost five months into, I can't seem to pinpoint exactly what has been done in terms of moving the economy forward. Yeah, we saw a lot from the government about what it intends to do. We saw a lot of, we have removed the subsidy, we have removed, we have floated the Naira. You know, there's been little in terms of action, in terms of maybe lifting the infrastructure deficit, increasing productivity in the manufacturing sector, also encouraging other sectors of the economy to pull their weight since we are already having a shuffle from our oil revenue. And we also seem not to be moving too quickly in terms of reforms in the oil sector. Production levels haven't moved significantly. I can also seem to see the kind of urgency that's required, you know, to ensure that the oil majors and all of our operators in that sector of production activity is we haven't really done so much, you know. So there's a lot of talk, but little movement is like a rocking chair, a lot of motion, but no force applied, you know. So I don't think I can give any form of pass mark to the president administration in terms of we have also seen the quality of scheme that they brought on board and absolutely disappointed in the selection and the kind of people that they brought in. And of course, it's already beginning to tell because as of now, we haven't seen any vision from, for instance, the Ministry of Education doesn't have anything by hand. We have not seen anything maybe from who is the Minister of Interior, who is the Minister of Commerce, you know. So a lot of them have gone back, like we replaced an old government with this, with the same government. I don't know what exactly happened in May, 2029, but it's like it's visible. We haven't moved any steps, like I can say, there's something significant happening in the economy currently. And it impacts the confidence of investors when they are, because they've seen all of this. They're seeing things that are happening and they are thinking to themselves, where exactly is the direction of the new government? What does it want to do? I can't beat my chest to say this is exactly where it's possible. It has said something about mining. It has said something about the Greek sector and not about actual action. It even made a promise to the manufacturing sector that hasn't fulfilled 70 billion naira that it plans to give to manufacturers, you know. So that money hasn't been released, you know. The other way, it made a promise of $3 billion loan from Apprentice and Bank and NNPC, and that money was never released. So it's almost like that's an audio kind of government happening, you know. A lot of promise, but all of them don't amount to anything at the end of the day. Headlines we saw today on the punch newspaper is that man is saying that they're experiencing the worst period ever in history. It's not surprising, you know. It's absolutely ridiculous what we're seeing, you know. Also, some of us are surprised, you know, because of the nature in which this administration started, the nature in which it was selected to power, you know. So a lot of things already started very wrong with it and they've already gotten worse since it started, you know. And as it is the renewed hope that the promise that somehow has not turned into any hope at all, you know. So manufacturers, their problems are very clear. It is not something that you need to go to school to learn. It is something that has already been written several times. This is what it's facing manufacturers. They require incentives. They need electricity. They need infrastructure. They need finance, all right, for them to move. Then you come in, rather than face those challenges and address them, what you end up doing is to increase the burden that they have been facing by floating the Naira and making it almost impossible for them to even have access to these cash dollars that they have been facing in time past. Any same government, the first priority would have been how do I make it easier for these guys to access dollars so that they can bring in their goods from overseas, you know, because we don't we don't manufacture the things that they require here. They are raw materials. Yeah, and then the farmers themselves are also having problems going back to their farms. So that also is a major challenge of its own. Although the Senate today, the news as we saw, the Senate yesterday, someone, the security chiefs to come and discuss with them so that they can find a way forward. However, it's been days since it's just been days since the new central bank governor has been confirmed along with his four deputies. What would you say to those who are saying that, look, President Tinubu just came into power. He's not the one that's caused all the problems that Nigeria is going through. Why are Nigerians being impatient with him? It's the same excuse that the same people gave when Buhari came in and spent six months and didn't select cabinet. They said we were being impatient with him. We should give him a lot more time. And then they stayed there for eight years. And perhaps it wasn't enough time for them to do something. I don't know what it means when you come into an empty or into a dirty house. And six months after that, or three months after that house remains dirty. It means that you're not ready to work. So for the cleaning, what exactly are you doing to change the environment that you came in? We have talked about how the government continues to run a very expensive government. Okay, so why don't we start from there from day one? It only tells you that there was no plan to actually cut down the cost of governance. All right. And then from there, we graduated into 45 ministers. Right now there's something one more name. I'll make it for the six ministers. But six ministers that have done absolutely nothing from the days they were appointed. It's like five months, all of them took office. The minister of communications and digital economy, for instance, have not made telecom industry in the past five to two weeks. He has been running around with, take people and also released some vision about what he thinks to do and all that. But then you're not meeting the people who provide infrastructure for the digital economy that you want to build. The same, I just spoke about the minister of education, who has not even said anything about the direction that he wants to take the education system to. So several of them sitting on a salary for the past how many weeks and doing nothing else to do it. So how much longer, how, and my judgment at the point where you're talking about patients, that's, we are, we have a lot of patients. The economy has a lot of patients. The economy is on his knee. The mara is on his knee. So we don't talk about patients when your house. When there's fire on the mountain. Yes, I get that. Have you heard about the currency re-denomination being speculated in some quarters? It was all over the place, say, two, three weeks ago. Of course, the central bank has denied that, saying that they have nothing like that on their table. But what do you make of the idea of currency re-denomination? Is this something you think Nigeria should be considering at this point? Considering the free fall of the Naira right now? I think they have gotten to a point where the, as in the expression has, has been over. So everything becomes, let's try and see if this won't work. If this doesn't work and all that. And what it only tells me is that these guys didn't have any plan at all when they came in. They didn't have, there was no blueprint as this is what our government is going to be defined by. You know, that this is what we're going to be known for. This is the direction that we're going, which is why we didn't see any direction. Even with all the speeches that were given by the president, there was no single itemized direction that this economy supposed to take. Because this is where we want to go and all that. So the civilian has resorted to what they're making or was doing, which is if this doesn't work, let's try this one, if that one doesn't work. So it's like gambling, you know? So if it works, you say, oh, yeah, it works. You know, if it doesn't work, if people come up to you, they say, no, this is all we want to do. So it has gotten to that point now where the expression has taken place and everything becomes, let's try. In every room, there is truth in this. The thing is that if we can recall, this is how the Naira re-domination started. When they started talking about that, people were saying, oh, the civilians say that they want to do this and the civilian came back and said, no, we don't want to redesign the Naira. This is what we want to do. I didn't want to re-design the Naira. So this is the desperation that has gotten into the government because there was no proper planning from being one of this is what we want to do. If that was, I want to see it, but it's not showing. Well, Frank, thank you so much for your time. Always interesting having you on the breakfast. Thank you. Always a pleasure. Frank Eliana, he's a technology and media editor at the Business Day newspaper. That was our first hot topic. From there, we'll move on to the second hot topic, which we'll bring to you in a moment. After now, I want to take a look at teachers. Have they been celebrated enough? Should their rewards still be in heaven? Well, we have a teacher who will be joining us in the house for that. Stay with us.