THE former president and chairman of Council of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Prof. Segun Ajibola, has denied saying N500 can feed an average Nigerian per day, but rather per meal.

Ajibola said this in reaction to a viral publication while appearing on an NTA programme, ‘Good Morning Nigerians’, on Wednesday, adding that he was only stressing the fact that naira was currently undervalued, especially internationally.

He said, “I explained that economists do resort to Purchasing Power Parity to explain the real value of one currency against another.

“When you benchmark naira against the US dollar, N500 can buy a meal in Nigeria, but the one dollar equivalent cannot buy anything in the US.

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“The idea of the argument is this; at N500 per meal, N1,500 per day, N45,000 per month, the naira in the pocket of an average Nigerian (who belongs to the lower 60 per cent of the population living on one dollar per day and/or earning N30,000 minimum wage) is not even sufficient to feed him alone, hence the prevalence of poverty in the land.”