Avalon316:


Na people like you dey kill naija. So you want the rate to be 1 pound to 600 naira to encourage you to send money home. Selfish Nigerians...

Not at all, this has nothing to do with selfishness... Rather it is silly and counterproductive for the CBN to artificially peg the official value of the Naira at a much reduced figure when everyone knows the actual value (blackmarket) is far far higher.

This was the exact reason the Naira was floated in June; to bridge the gap between the official and parallel/blackmarket rates, to encourage foreign investors and diasporan Nigerians to bring more forex into the country and to prevent our numerous dubious businessmen from round-tripping by collecting official rate from banks/cbn and selling it back at the blackmarket with instant N150 to N200 profit per $/£.

The CBN says Nigerians in diaspora remitted $21bn into the country last year; this whooping figure isn't because diasporans now have more money, rather it is because it is now more lucrative to send money home so diasporans now work harder and squeeze themselves to send down every little they make. In return, this increased remittances helps the economy but these silly CBn policies of forcing money transfer organisations (like Westi etc) to exchange at lower rates (even when we know the real value on the streets), such moves only discourages a lot of diasporans from sending money down as they would have wished and I'm yet to fathom how this helps Nigeria.

KayodeAjani:

YOU ARE SPEAKING AS IF YOU NO DEY NIGERIA

Yh I'm actually not in Nigeria

Its fustrating!!!... nigerians are stranded all over the world... with no means of recieving funds... im in ghana and i can say for a certain 80% of the studebts here are broke and stranded.. talkless of those residing in europe or america

We shall see where all these policies lands us @ d end of Buhari's 1st term in office. The inconveniences reaching a record high

iwatch:
create a paypal account and switch to DCC within your paypal account.

Pls a detailed explanation plus link
I BEG YOU

bigtt76:
So what of the dollars the banks were to sell to BDCs? Did they source it from the Black market ni? These people are not just telling us the truth. The banks stopped the card transactions after CBN suspended 19 banks from selling their forex.

What this meant is that when the banks are suspended, they cannot continue to payout Naira to customers while they have a horde of forex unused in their vaults.

They would end up not having Naira again since they cannot use the forex to settle their bills externally without CBN clamping down on them nor can they sell to the BDCs to get Naira. Just watch, when the suspension is lifted, they will resume ....#uselessBanks

Those people are jokers. I was laughing when they say the 'sourced ' dollars above 400 and am like do the banks now buy from black markets and then sell to the BDCs and then black market now turns back and sells to the banks above 400?

Then they write on their interbank slates we buy at 314. Bla bla bla.. We sell at 315.bla bla bla...


Just what is wrong with this country?

Just negodu nzuzu!

obailala:
Not at all, this has nothing to do with selfishness... Rather it is silly and counterproductive for the CBN to artificially peg the official value of the Naira at a much reduced figure when everyone knows the actual value (blackmarket) is far far higher.

This was the exact reason the Naira was floated in June; to bridge the gap between the official and parallel/blackmarket rates, to encourage foreign investors and diasporan Nigerians to bring more forex into the country and to prevent our numerous dubious businessmen from round-tripping by collecting official rate from banks/cbn and selling it back at the blackmarket with instant N150 to N200 profit per $/£.

The CBN says Nigerians in diaspora remitted $21bn into the country last year; this whooping figure isn't because diasporans now have more money, rather it is because it is now more lucrative to send money home so diasporans now work harder and squeeze themselves to send down every little they make. In return, this increased remittances helps the economy but these silly CBn policies of forcing money transfer organisations (like Westi etc) to exchange at lower rates (even when we know the real value on the streets), such moves only discourages a lot of diasporans from sending money down as they would have wished and I'm yet to fathom how this helps Nigeria.

You're still very selfish like the other guy say, so the exchange rate of N310/$1 isn't enough for you to send money home to your people, you want to sell dollar at the parallel market rate even when you're not living in Nigeria, facing hardship with the people whose scarcity of dollar has doubled (or even tripled) the prices of goods and services from what they used to pay just under a year ago. You don't feel the pain of dollar scarcity but want to reap the benefits.

For god's sake this is a currency that exchanged N150/$1 for just over two years ago. People keep saying CBN should float exchange rate when nearly 80 percent of Nigeria's consumption is coming from abroad. Tell me how this will stop dollar demand. Even if CBN pegged the official rate simultaneously with the parallel market rate, it's just a matter of time before the dollar scarcity sets in and we start asking for another floating exchange rate again.

The only way out of this is to revamp our local production to cut our demands for foreign goods. If Nigeria can produce just 50 percent of her consumption, I can tell you the dollar will fall like a scrap of paper. You can't fix the exchange rate without firstly addressing the demand side.

Do Payoneer card buy stuffs online because for 3 consecutive times I have tried it but wasn't working , does anyone has similar experience?

pacespot:


You're still very selfish like the other guy say, so the exchange rate of N310/$1 isn't enough for you to send money home to your people, you want to sell dollar at the parallel market rate even when you're not living in Nigeria, facing hardship with the people whose scarcity of dollar has doubled (or even tripled) the prices of goods and services from what they used to pay just under a year ago. You don't feel the pain of dollar scarcity but want to reap the benefits.

For god's sake this is a currency that exchanged N150/$1 for just over two years ago. People keep saying CBN should float exchange rate when nearly 80 percent of Nigeria's consumption is coming from abroad. Tell me how this will stop dollar demand. Even if CBN pegged the official rate simultaneously with the parallel market rate, it's just a matter of time before the dollar scarcity sets in and we start asking for another floating exchange rate again.

The only way out of this is to revamp our local production to cut our demands for foreign goods. If Nigeria can produce just 50 percent of her consumption, I can tell you the dollar will fall like a scrap of paper. You can't fix the exchange rate without firstly addressing the demand side.

Obviously you do not get the point.

The pound sells for N550, you have a £10 note in your pocket and the CBN tells you you must exchange it for N450 (in order to give a false impression that the Naira has appreciated), does that make any single sense to you?

The pound is worth N550 but you are forced to sell it for N100 less than its value at an artificial false rate of N450 even though the commodity is still scarce, you really think that is the best way to help Nigeria for a person who isnt selfish as you claim?.... You really think that would encourage people to release the stockpile of scarce forex they have in their vaults?... Have you ever heard of demand and supply theory?

Today a bag of rice sells for N18,000 to N22,000, then a rice seller is asked to sell it for N7000 by force, is that a sensible way to bring down the price of rice?

Realdeals:
I was surprised when I was charged at N322 by a bank for online transaction.

Abeg na which bank be that sir?

pacespot:


You're still very selfish like the other guy say, so the exchange rate of N310/$1 isn't enough for you to send money home to your people, you want to sell dollar at the parallel market rate even when you're not living in Nigeria, facing hardship with the people whose scarcity of dollar has doubled (or even tripled) the prices of goods and services from what they used to pay just under a year ago. You don't feel the pain of dollar scarcity but want to reap the benefits.

For god's sake this is a currency that exchanged N150/$1 for just over two years ago. People keep saying CBN should float exchange rate when nearly 80 percent of Nigeria's consumption is coming from abroad. Tell me how this will stop dollar demand. Even if CBN pegged the official rate simultaneously with the parallel market rate, it's just a matter of time before the dollar scarcity sets in and we start asking for another floating exchange rate again.

The only way out of this is to revamp our local production to cut our demands for foreign goods. If Nigeria can produce just 50 percent of her consumption, I can tell you the dollar will fall like a scrap of paper. You can't fix the exchange rate without firstly addressing the demand side.

Okay we agree you are patriotic and totally not selfish, a simple question for you to answer honestly:

You have £100 in your pocket, the abokki at the junction is happy to buy it from you at N550/£ but the BDC beside him is offering to buy it from you at N450, who will you sell your £100 to?

Your answer would be much appreciated.


Have you ever asked yourself why several economists kept urging the CBN/FG to devalue the Naira back when it was still pegged at N197 to $1?... It is because when adjusted to the more realistic value, it would encourage foreign investors (and people with forex generally) to channel their forex into Nigeria since they would be enticed by the higher value. The idea is simple Economics 101, when many more people are encouraged to bring in their forex into Nigeria, it creates a higher SUPPLY of forex, thereby driving down the price; that is the proper and sustainable way to bring down the price, not the artificial decrees of the CBN forcing people to sell at lower prices in the name of patriotism/non-selfishness.

obailala:
Obviously you do not get the point.

The pound sells for N550, you have a £10 note in your pocket and the CBN tells you you must exchange it for N450 (in order to give a false impression that the Naira has appreciated), does that make any single sense to you?

The pound is worth N550 but you are forced to sell it for N100 less than its value at an artificial false rate of N450 even though the commodity is still scarce, you really think that is the best way to help Nigeria for a person who isnt selfish as you claim?.... You really think that would encourage people to release the stockpile of scarce forex they have in their vaults?... Have you ever heard of demand and supply theory?

Today a bag of rice sells for N18,000 to N22,000, then a rice seller is asked to sell it for N7000 by force, is that a sensible way to bring down the price of rice?

Thank God you admit that the commodity is scarce. Now, if CBN allowed you to exchange pounds for N550 as an official rate, tell me how the parallel market rate would rise to N650. Try to understand, this is an austerity measure by government to save Naira from crashing completely.

There are a lot of speculative activities going on in the bureau de change, they hoard the dollars to create scarcity and sell at a far higher price. If government devalue the currency, that will give them the license to further inflate their selling price, so far the commodity is still scarce.

Hope you understand

pacespot:


Thank God you admit that the commodity is scarce. Now, if CBN allowed you to exchange pounds for N550 as an official rate, tell me how the parallel market rate would rise to N650. Try to understand, this is an austerity measure by government to save Naira from crashing completely.

There are a lot of speculative activities going on in the bureau de change, they hoard the dollars to create scarcity and sell at a far higher price. If government devalue the currency, that will give them the license to further inflate their selling price, so far the commodity is still scarce.

Hope you understand

What can be done to end/reduce the scarcity?... That is what should be encouraged and definitely, forcefully pegging the price wouldn't and isn't working. From our experience in the last one year, it's obvious that the government pegging the price doesn't help any more; rather it only encourages more speculation which further creates a larger and larger spread between the official and parallel rates and this in turn fuels further speculation and encourages more and more roundtripping. Right now i believe the only reason the last devaluation/floating that was done isn't working is because the CBN/govt still hasn't floated anything; they only devalued. You cannot say you have floated a currency yet the interbank rate and parallel rates are still miles apart (and growing).

What we should aim for now as a country is to find quick ways to end the scarcity cos the scarcity is what is really driving the rates, not the speculations. Nigerians in diaspora were said to remit $21bn last year, I can assure you that that figure is a massive increase from the preceding year and it would even be much more this year. People are encouraged to send more money back home when they 'think' they would make more money doing so. Whatever the CBN can do to encourage more people to send more money home is welcome but forcefully reducing the rate to a false value does not in any way encourage people to send money.

I live in the UK and I send money home from time to time, but I can tell you for a fact that the money I have sent back in 2016 alone is more than what i have sent home in the last 4-5 years put together, that is because I 'think' it is more lucrative now. That is the simple logic preached by economists when they asked the CBN/FG to float the currency; it entices people to send down even more than they can afford, I have friends who have recently taken massive loans from banks to send back to Nigeria. When more people like myself send larger sums home, it means a much larger inflow of forex into the country and that is exactly what we need in the country presently to plug the scarcity and revive the economy/Naira.

Good day,
Can you please sell only $500 to me at N400/$. I await your response.
Thanks in advance.

Observant:
Nigerian banks are bastards.
I requested for PTA through Stanbicibtc when dollars was about 350 at the black market hoping to get it at CBN rate of 305.
But to my greatest surprise, after one month and two weeks of request, the useless bank called me to say that they can give me 2000 dollars at 398.7 naira. By then black market had gotten to 470. These banks are very useless and inimical to Nigeria.

obailala:
Okay we agree you are patriotic and totally not selfish, a simple question for you to answer honestly:

You have £100 in your pocket, the abokki at the junction is happy to buy it from you at N550/£ but the BDC beside him is offering to buy it from you at N450, who will you sell your £100 to?

Your answer would be much appreciated.


Have you ever asked yourself why several economists kept urging the CBN/FG to devalue the Naira back when it was still pegged at N197 to $1?... It is because when adjusted to the more realistic value, it would encourage foreign investors (and people with forex generally) to channel their forex into Nigeria since they would be enticed by the higher value. The idea is simple Economics 101, when many more people are encouraged to bring in their forex into Nigeria, it creates a higher SUPPLY of forex, thereby driving down the price; that is the proper and sustainable way to bring down the price, not the artificial decrees of the CBN forcing people to sell at lower prices in the name of patriotism/non-selfishness.

The issue of attracting foreign investors is a complicated economic model, there are many things that go into that. Infrastructure is key to reduce their overhead cost, and many more factors that are even beyond economic terms: trust, safety, alliance, even LOVE for the hosting nation.

After all, CBN's forex rate had dove-tailed with the parallel market rate for many years when exchange rate was still N150/$1, how many foreign investors did it attract?

pacespot:


The issue of attracting foreign investors is a complicated economic model, there are many things that go into that. Infrastructure is key to reduce their overhead cost, and many more factors that are even beyond economic terms: trust, safety, alliance, even LOVE for the hosting nation.

After all, CBN's forex rate had dove-tailed with the parallel market rate for many years when exchange rate was still N150/$1, how many foreign investors did it attract?

In general, a higher exchange rate attracts people with forex. This simple logic also explains why Nigerians in diaspora have been sending far much more money back home lately. Foreign investors doesnt necessarily mean massive multinational companies, it includes the small and medium sized businesses, it also includes that simply Nigerian living in the US or UK for the past 15 years but who thinks he has to take advantage of the benefits the exchange rate gives him to set up that little restaurant or that little estate or farm he always dreamt of having. However you look at it, we're talking of forex capital inflow to the country.

You read my mind! CBN be thinking the Diasporas would be the ones to revive the economy right? Let them be angling for it. The current gains of the Naira would soon be shortlived as CBN is now fixing the rate at which the money transfer organizations can payout in Naira in exchange for the dollar locally.

This means the remittance from the Diaspora would no longer be lucrative as you mentioned. Also, with the 19 banks suspended, they would experience a gloat in their system whereby they would no longer afford to remit Naira to the customers hence they would no longer partake in the in flow.

obailala:
Not at all, this has nothing to do with selfishness... Rather it is silly and counterproductive for the CBN to artificially peg the official value of the Naira at a much reduced figure when everyone knows the actual value (blackmarket) is far far higher.

This was the exact reason the Naira was floated in June; to bridge the gap between the official and parallel/blackmarket rates, to encourage foreign investors and diasporan Nigerians to bring more forex into the country and to prevent our numerous dubious businessmen from round-tripping by collecting official rate from banks/cbn and selling it back at the blackmarket with instant N150 to N200 profit per $/£.

The CBN says Nigerians in diaspora remitted $21bn into the country last year; this whooping figure isn't because diasporans now have more money, rather it is because it is now more lucrative to send money home so diasporans now work harder and squeeze themselves to send down every little they make. In return, this increased remittances helps the economy but these silly CBn policies of forcing money transfer organisations (like Westi etc) to exchange at lower rates (even when we know the real value on the streets), such moves only discourages a lot of diasporans from sending money down as they would have wished and I'm yet to fathom how this helps Nigeria.

obailala:
In general, a higher exchange rate attracts people with forex. This simple logic also explains why Nigerians in diaspora have been sending far much more money back home lately. Foreign investors doesnt necessarily mean massive multinational companies, it includes the small and medium sized businesses, it also includes that simply Nigerian living in the US or UK for the past 15 years but who thinks he has to take advantage of the benefits the exchange rate gives him to set up that little restaurant or that little estate or farm he always dreamt of having. However you look at it, we're talking of forex capital inflow to the country.

Ok, that's also good. But the key question is that, are we marginally better off with such kind of investment considering that the country is heavily dependent on importation?

If we sacrificed our currency to encourage people sending money home from abroad, what about the burden on the domestic prices of goods and services, since we are not yet self-reliant to cater for our consumption.

The burden would be heavy, I think

bigtt76:
You read my mind! CBN be thinking the Diasporas would be the ones to revive the economy right? Let them be angling for it. The current gains of the Naira would soon be shortlived as CBN is now fixing the rate at which the money transfer organizations can payout in Naira in exchange for the dollar locally.

This means the remittance from the Diaspora would no longer be lucrative as you mentioned. Also, with the 19 banks suspended, they would experience a gloat in their system whereby they would no longer afford to remit Naira to the customers hence they would no longer partake in the in flow.

Absolutely, I really dont understand the level of reasoning in the CBN board, neither do I understand what they really hope to achieve with such a counter-productive policy of pegging rates at which IMTOs exchange money.

CBN's recent policy to register/license IMTOs was in a bid to harness the benefits of the massive forex from diaspora remittances. What I do not understand however is this move to dictate how much they should exchange for cos it has succeeded in discouraging a lot of people from sending money.

pacespot:


Ok, that's also good. But the key question is that, are we marginally better off with such kind of investment considering that the country is heavily dependent on importation?

If we sacrificed our currency to encourage people sending money home from abroad, what about the burden on the domestic prices of goods and services, since we are not yet self-reliant to cater for our consumption.

The burden would be heavy, I think

Absolutely we are better off with any kind of investment that would flood the country with forex. And NO, we arent sacrificing the Naira cos it is already dead remember?

After oil, the highest source of forex to Nigeria is diaspora remittances (CBN said that themselves). Need I remind you that the reason behind the low value of the Naira is a forex scarcity?

Now the Naira is virtually dead already due to this forex scarcity. CBN manipulating the exchange rate is just like standing up a corpse, dressing it on a 3-piece suit and presenting it as a live being.

If a Nigerian living abroad sends dollars to Nigeria and the CBN exchanges it for N305 instead of the true value of N450, the CBN has simply cheated the Nigerian abroad and there is absolutely no way this cheating would affect the price of things in Nigeria because after the CBN forwards these dollars to the banks, it still ends up in the black market and the common man still ends up buying the dollar for N450. So the the question is, 'who has taken that N150?'... definitely not the person abroad sending the money and definitely not the man on the street who needs the dollar to import goods. I hope you see the trend?. . At the end the man abroad get discouraged from sending more money because he knows a large chunk of the money gets eroded away to God knows where.

But by allowing the naira to be exchanged for its true value, contrary to your claim that the CBN would be 'sacrificing' the naira (which is already dead by the way), the CBN would actually be encouraging forex inflow which is more than capable of rescucitating the dead Naira. By doing anything in the contrary (as is currently the case), CBN is actually 'sacrificing' diaspora remittances and the inflow of foreign investors in a bid to artificially make the already dead Naira 'appear' alive.

At this point the CBN should encourage anything which entices people to send forex to Nigeria, arbitrarily fixing the exchange rate at an obviously lower value is definitely counter productive as it discourages people from sending money home.

well what's decision the banks takes doesn't affect everyone but the majority(those are the ones i pity)

if I wish to convert my dollar to naira I simply send it to my skrill account and find the nearest buyer and sell my dollar at whatever rate I choose.

cost this country is damage beyond repair.

yaki84:
i dont blame d banks, i blame bank customers.

How much forex do cbn give to banks daily?
Some customers will want to use 200 peoples slot alone.

Also cbn shud uplift d ban on dollar deposit, i keep saying this nigerians hv enough dolls in their bedroom but they cant take it to the bank.

Sir, are you in Nigeria? Banks have resumed dollar deposits for over 6 months now. And why do you think CBN cannot come down with a hammer and slam banks?
Because the CBN does not fund the interbank market. So banks are coming to buy and no one is selling. So banks source for FX from multinationals in Nigeria. The sell their FX proceeds to bank and in return get low interest rates on their loans.

TheOonlyOne:
Payoneer ti take over jo

How much do they charge?

iwatch:
create a paypal account and switch to DCC within your paypal account.

Paypal is not among the options Google Play Store popped up.

obailala:
What can be done to end/reduce the scarcity?... That is what should be encouraged and definitely, forcefully pegging the price wouldn't and isn't working. From our experience in the last one year, it's obvious that the government pegging the price doesn't help any more; rather it only encourages more speculation which further creates a larger and larger spread between the official and parallel rates and this in turn fuels further speculation and encourages more and more roundtripping. Right now i believe the only reason the last devaluation/floating that was done isn't working is because the CBN/govt still hasn't floated anything; they only devalued. You cannot say you have floated a currency yet the interbank rate and parallel rates are still miles apart (and growing).

What we should aim for now as a country is to find quick ways to end the scarcity cos the scarcity is what is really driving the rates, not the speculations. Nigerians in diaspora were said to remit $21bn last year, I can assure you that that figure is a massive increase from the preceding year and it would even be much more this year. People are encouraged to send more money back home when they 'think' they would make more money doing so. Whatever the CBN can do to encourage more people to send more money home is welcome but forcefully reducing the rate to a false value does not in any way encourage people to send money.

I live in the UK and I send money home from time to time, but I can tell you for a fact that the money I have sent back in 2016 alone is more than what i have sent home in the last 4-5 years put together, that is because I 'think' it is more lucrative now. That is the simple logic preached by economists when they asked the CBN/FG to float the currency; it entices people to send down even more than they can afford, I have friends who have recently taken massive loans from banks to send back to Nigeria. When more people like myself send larger sums home, it means a much larger inflow of forex into the country and that is exactly what we need in the country presently to plug the scarcity and revive the economy/Naira.

Can't the Foreign currencies be sent tru unconventional means by evading banks. The cheating at the expense of the sender is jus very annoying.
Pls overlook my ignorance on this matter

NOETHNICITY:
Can't the Foreign currencies be sent tru unconventional means by evading banks. The cheating at the expense of the sender is jus very annoying.
Pls overlook my ignorance on this matter

Yeah there are unconventional means, but security of your funds can't really be guaranteed. You could choose to save up the funds and hand over cash to someone returning to Nigeria (very unsafe). There are also several unconventional money transfer vendors, you give them your dollar/pound etc and they pay you the agreed outcome in Naira into the Nigerian account of your choice and you also give them a fee which is typically a little percentage (E.g. 3%) of the amount you want to transfer. These unconventional money transfer vendors are the only option left at the moment to send money down to Nigeria at a 'reasonable' exchange rate. Security of your hard earned cash isn't guaranteed though cos you are basically handing over your money to a stranger based on trust.

obailala:
Yeah there are unconventional means, but security of your funds can't really be guaranteed. You could choose to save up the funds and hand over cash to someone returning to Nigeria (very unsafe). There are also several unconventional money transfer vendors, you give them your dollar/pound etc and they pay you the agreed outcome in Naira into the Nigerian account of your choice and you also give them a fee which is typically a little percentage (E.g. 3%) of the amount you want to transfer. These unconventional money transfer vendors are the only option left at the moment to send money down to Nigeria at a 'reasonable' exchange rate. Security of your hard earned cash isn't guaranteed though cos you are basically handing over your money to a stranger based on trust.

What about western union? Those pple use to do direct FC transfer back then na. Have they stopped?

NOETHNICITY:
What about western union? Those pple use to do direct FC transfer back then na. Have they stopped?

Western union still functions, but several similar money transfer operators came up recently which offered far better exchange rates and lower fees, so nobody really cares about Westi anymore. The unfortunate thing now is that the CBN with its recent directives has now pegged the exchange rate for all the newer transfer operators, so they aren't really better than western union anymore.