“Everything we do today is based on the dollar exchange rate, and it is like most of our existence depends on what we import. Imagine a country of 200 million people that has to depend on an external economy,” expressed Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State during his keynote address at the Delta State Executive Retreat 2023, which had as its theme “Delivering the M.O.R.E Agenda for advancing Delta: Strategy and Enablers,” held in Asaba, Delta State.
“We spend about $40 billion a year in this country and you would expect that it should be enough for any country to develop but no, today, we earn less but our demand for foreign exchange is more.
“We spend about $2 billion paying school fees abroad, $3 million for health care treatment abroad, about $500 million buying milk and milk products, and about $10 billion importing food. We no longer earn dollars as we used to, but the dollars keep going up. We will deal with inflation for a long time.”
