The Naira rates to dollar, pounds, euros and other currency are outrageous for the average Nigerian earning Nairas. For those of us who actually have access to foreign currency, its a blessing but not always especially when you want to make big purchases. An airline ticket to the USA is about N300,000 while you can still buy it for $1200 which is about N240,000. Now comes word that the President wants to change that. Ibrahim Babangida's government devalued the Naira in the late 80's to 90's and he owns a major African bank, UBA. Imagine!
The naira should not be devalued further, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Wednesday, despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s growing struggles to keep the naira at current levels.
The nation’s revenue has been hit hard by the fall of global crude prices, and the CBN has imposed increasingly strict foreign exchange rules to save the external reserves and avoid what would be the third devaluation in one year.
The central bank had devalued the naira in November last year and February this year.
Despite the CBN’s uphill struggle to keep the naira from falling further, Buhari believes the naira must not be devalued.
“I don’t think it is healthy for us to have the naira devalued further,” Buhari said in an interview with France 24.
“That’s why we are getting the central bank to make modifications in terms of making foreign exchange available to essential services, industries, spare parts, essential raw materials and so on – but things like toothpicks and rice, Nigeria can produce enough of those,” he said.
The naira had fallen to as low as 242 per dollar on the parallel market in July, versus the official rate of 197. It has lost around 15 per cent against the dollar over the past year with the official devaluation in November and a de facto one in February.
