The Muhammadu Buhari administration has reportedly resorted to cutting down trees in Abuja in a bid to save the Naira.
According to Financial Times, the Buhari-led FG is cutting down trees lining the streets of Abuja to ”thwart black market money changers, one of a range of unorthodox measures it is deploying to defend its weakening currency”.
The chopping down of the trees is part of the holistic plan to discourage black market operators of forex who carry out their businesses under the trees.
Some labourers hired by the Abuja city government cut the trees spoke to Financial Times. One said, ”The government does not want the trees because people are doing illegal work under them,” as he cut down branches from a tree with a chainsaw.
”The man was referring to money changers from the north of the country who rest under the shade of the trees and sell US dollars, British pounds, and even Saudi riyals to customers hungry for hard currency,” the report concluded.