Nigeria aims for naira convertibility in 2009
Tue 14 Aug 2007, 10:30 GMT

[-] Text [+] ABUJA, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The Nigerian central bank will eliminate all restrictions on capital account transfers and make its naira <NGN=> fully convertible by Jan. 1 2009, Goveror Chukwuma Soludo said on Tuesday.

The bank will gradually phase out its foreign exchange auctions in favour of interbank dealing and distribute fiscal revenues to states in dollars to deepen its foreign exchange market, Soludo told a gathering of press, government officials and diplomats.

Africa's top oil exporter will also re-denominate the naira from August 1 next year, removing two zeros, so that 100 old naira will become 1 new naira, he said.

naijaway:

very good news because if u make 20,000naira a month u are not far off from people in other parts of the world. It would encourage people to go back to Africa and also work .

Govt realigns the naira, phases out currencies next year
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday announced plans for the revaluation and realignment of the naira to make it competitive with the United States (US.) dollar. Under the new plan, announced by the CBN governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo in Abuja, the naira is to be realigned to the Pre- Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) regime of 1986 where it was at par with the US. dollar. Consequently, the existing N1000; N500; N200; N100 will revert to N10; N5; N2 and N1 respectively while a higher note of N20 denomination is to be introduced. Also, the current N5 note is to revert to 50 kobo while coins are to be re-introduced ranging from one kobo; two kobo; five kobo ; 10 kobo to 20 kobo. The new plan which will come into full force from the of August 1 next year, is to form the basis of wages; naira assets; prices and contract regimes in Nigeria.

azorjiu:



I like the concept of 50 kobo coming back in note.

Seun:

Ok, let me get this straight. Last year, new notes were introduced to replace old ones. The notes were supposed to be polymer notes, but because the polymer notes were too expensive, we ended up with the same kind of notes we had before - just a different design - and we were forced to switch to the new, uglier paper notes.

Now, those same billions of notes that were almost too expensive to produce are going to be thrown away in a re-denomination exercise that has no effect on the value of the naira. Companies will have to spend trillions of naira updating their accounting systems and previous accounting statements to be compatible with this currency.

And for what reason? In order to convert former millionaires into ten-thousand-aires, change the price of pure water from 5 naira to 5 kobo, and change the salary of an average graduate from 40,000 naira to 400 naira. Ahem.

All the people who supported this idiotic government decision should be rounded up shipped to Ghana. My worst fears about Professor Charles Soludo have been confirmed. He is not qualified to be called an economist.

ziddy:

Soludo is a qualified economist- he has his string of degrees and professorship to prove it. Maybe he has been drinking a strange brand of coffee these days (apologies to Jimoh Ibrahim)

Soludo is a qualified economist- he has his string of degrees and professorship to prove it.
Maybe he has been drinking a strange brand of coffee these days (apologies to Jimoh Ibrahim)

very good news because if u make 20,000naira a month u are not far off from people in other parts of the world. It would encourage people to go back to Africa and also work

son:


Lets not be deceived about the zeros reducing if the intrinsic value of the naira does not go up.

That may be so, but I learnt that he was initially opposed to the plan,
but for some reason decided to change his mind.  Perhaps he was forced
to accept the plan?  Perhaps he's bored and needs a new pointless project?

son:

Sounds good on paper but in reality, dodgy move.

Pardon my analogy but its the best i thought of for now.

In 2003 i got 10 rand in Jo'Burg in exchange for a Pound invariably £100 got me R1000.

In that same year £100 got me N23,000 in Lagos.

Honestly what i did with 23k in Naija was more than what R1000 made me do in Jo'Burg.

Lets not be deceived about the zeros reducing if the intrinsic value of the naira does not go up.



It may well pan out that boiz in Naija will earn nearly if not same figures as guys abroad, but trust me guys for obodo yonder no go show face for town like before, Virgin nigeria and BA go shock say boiz go bone all their offers to travel 6hrs to Lagos, lol

Infact boiz for yankee go lost pata pata, e go do us like the days of our grand uncles wey no dey go house.

PONDER ON THE ANALOGIES MADE AND You'D SEE DAT EVEN THOUGH ITS ON A LIGHT NOTE THE REALITY AINT NO JOKE, SOME SECTORS WILL SUFFER e.g MONEY TRANSFER ,


i just hope Soludo and his cohort know what they are doing.

Will you tread the path of honour and let's know where you got this information from as well.?