Nigeria has lost a year. By imposing capital controls and sticking mulishly to a fixed exchange rate out of sync with the shifting fortunes of the economy, President Muhammadu Buhari eroded the independence of the Central Bank of Nigeria, dented the confidence of investors and came close to breaking many domestic businesses dependent on imported inputs. His misguided bid to prop up the currency in the interest of the poor when the price of oil, the main export earner, had collapsed, pushed capital out of the country. So, Wednesday’s decision by the CBN to float the naira came later than it should have and at a price that was needlessly high. It was also accompanied by a questionable move to limit the number of primary traders with access to foreign exchange at the central bank. The regulator is effectively establishing a cartel of favoured banks and, even if unintentionally, creating avenues for price-fixing among them.