Exchange rate under Buhari: From N208 to N305 in 1 year
NaijaRock
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Posted by Felix Okoli on Tuesday February 9, 2016 at 12:42:59:
On January 1, 2015, the exchange rate for the USD to the Nigerian Naira at the black market was around N208 as reported by the Vanguard on January 13, 2015 but as at January 14, 2016 which is about 7 months after the Buhari led ACP government has been making the financial decisions, the Naira has fallen by almost 100 points to now exchange for N305 for 1 US dollar. It's like the Naira has been unofficially devalued even though the official exchange rate still says its still N199 per US dollar.Compared to Buhari and the CBN's handling of the exchange rate, it seems that Jonathan's administration did a better job than they did because way back in January 2014 when the PDP led government was still in power, the black market exchange rate for the US dollar was about N170 and only fell to N208 in 2015 which is 1 year afterwards. Many Nigerians understand that the Naira will keep falling to the US dollar because we mostly depend on imports than exports but many did not expect it to fall so drastically as it did during 7 months of Buhari's administration. How could a currency that was once priced at N208 fall as low as N305? Does it mean that the CBN governor has made mistakes? Were the monetary and fiscal policies during Buhari's administration worse than during Jonathan's administration? Well, it doesn't seem that the measures taken by the CBN to save the Naira by stabilizing it are really working since the Naira has fallen drastically within a year.What will happen to the Nigerian Naira by the time January 2017 rolls in? Well, at the rate at which is has depreciated from 2015 to 2016, it seems likely to fall further if the rights steps are not taken by the CBN under Buhari's administration. If it's going to fall by the same margin as it did from 1 year ago, I guess that would mean 1 US dollar would then equal to N440 using simple mathematics. I figured that if the Nigerian Naira could falls as low as 47% from January 2015 to January 2016, under similar conditions, it is still likely to fall by 47% to reach N440 by January 2016. I guess it's high time Nigerians start saving their money in US dollars rather than in Naira or convert their money to other forms of assets such as gold, stocks, land, property and so on.
On January 1, 2015, the exchange rate for the USD to the Nigerian Naira at the black market was around N208 as reported by the Vanguard on January 13, 2015 but as at January 14, 2016 which is about 7 months after the Buhari led ACP government has been making the financial decisions, the Naira has fallen by almost 100 points to now exchange for N305 for 1 US dollar. It's like the Naira has been unofficially devalued even though the official exchange rate still says its still N199 per US dollar.Compared to Buhari and the CBN's handling of the exchange rate, it seems that Jonathan's administration did a better job than they did because way back in January 2014 when the PDP led government was still in power, the black market exchange rate for the US dollar was about N170 and only fell to N208 in 2015 which is 1 year afterwards. Many Nigerians understand that the Naira will keep falling to the US dollar because we mostly depend on imports than exports but many did not expect it to fall so drastically as it did during 7 months of Buhari's administration. How could a currency that was once priced at N208 fall as low as N305? Does it mean that the CBN governor has made mistakes? Were the monetary and fiscal policies during Buhari's administration worse than during Jonathan's administration? Well, it doesn't seem that the measures taken by the CBN to save the Naira by stabilizing it are really working since the Naira has fallen drastically within a year.What will happen to the Nigerian Naira by the time January 2017 rolls in? Well, at the rate at which is has depreciated from 2015 to 2016, it seems likely to fall further if the rights steps are not taken by the CBN under Buhari's administration. If it's going to fall by the same margin as it did from 1 year ago, I guess that would mean 1 US dollar would then equal to N440 using simple mathematics. I figured that if the Nigerian Naira could falls as low as 47% from January 2015 to January 2016, under similar conditions, it is still likely to fall by 47% to reach N440 by January 2016. I guess it's high time Nigerians start saving their money in US dollars rather than in Naira or convert their money to other forms of assets such as gold, stocks, land, property and so on.