I was going through my social media when I came across this post. In this picture, we can see the history on the price difference between Naira to dollar exchange rate from 1972-2019. From 1972-2019 is approximately 47 years and Naira has moved from $1/N0.658 to $1/N363, this is approximately 55,067% over 47 years.
In 10 years Naira moved from N199 to over N870-N1680. This should be one of the highest increase within a short time in the exchange rate of dollar to Naira. In 2024, the average exchange rate of USD/NGN was N1460 per dollar. The lowest was N870 per dollar in January and the highest was N1680 per dollar in November 2024. Throughout that year, USD gained against the Naira.
Question of thoughts as Nigerians:
1- Some may argue that since 1972 till date is approximately 53 years now. Inflation has risen since then and we shouldn’t expect the price to remain the same. But is this argument justifiable to keep the price to increase to what it is today??
2- Another point of argument is that the economy in those years depended more on exportations than little importation, we had less population, low employment status but the case is no longer the same now. Is this point also justifiable to the cause of the increased exchange rate?
3- The black market has also affected the exchange rate over the years, can this be blamed to be some kind of conflict of interest for those in powers, by owning and using those black market rate to make themselves rich overnight?
4- And lastly, should we use this as a measure of argument always or we should continue to look for alternatives to benefit from the current economic realities of the exchange rates now.
