Dear Mr President, I want to suggest a new idea for the country. There was a currency before the NAIRA and there shall be one after it. Create and introduce NIGERIAN-DOLLAR (NGD) to the system. One NGD should be equal to N100 then set a target to eliminate the Naira.
At the moment, the physical result of the seemingly good policies and other efforts you are putting in place appears negative to the people because the Naira is gasping for breath.
We are currently counting much money for less value, including in printing the cash which should have been vice versa.
With the above new system, PMS could be NGD 20 equivalent to NGN 2,000 and people might not feel it much while the farm tractor would be NGD 350,000 against the current NGN 35,000,000 approximate minimum value.
In a justice system, the world currency shall be the same all over the globe, that is also what you will see in religious books. As you know, “Gold” was used as money accepted worldwide. The moment countries create currency of different values, definitely, some countries will be cheating or taking advantage of others and that allows for selling money for profit (which is prohibited by some religions) rather than exchanging it for equivalent value. Sooner or later, I believe that the world would realize the effect and come back to one general currency, possibly through the new crypto market.
As an Analyst, I can tell you that there shall be a formular for each section in life. The formula for devaluing a country’s currency is when the level of exportation is much higher than importation, meaning that devaluation in a country like China might be perfect for them. However, when importation is higher, multiple times than exportation like the case of Nigeria, devaluation of a currency is as good as jumping in to the “lake of fire.”
If the currency of “Country A” is higher than 150 of 195 countries in the world or higher than almost half of the total number of countries (plus or minus), then it could devalue its currency to allow countries with lower currency value to participate in buying exported goods from the country, but when “Country A” has currency value among the lowest in the world and it is still discussing devaluation or even implementing, then I can’t find a word in any book to express that. Another bad experience is when a country closes its borders for exportation and devalues its currency, meaning a “living dead”.
Nigeria is number 6 in world population. Its currency ought to be closer to the countries in that group for the betterment of the nation. The world will always show you how to devalue your currency but would not let you know the consequences of devaluation. When a country like Nigeria devalues its currency, its people will experience more hardship. It has been happening for over a decade where our expatriate-colleagues working in the same office but earning salaries in different currencies smile more widely whenever the Naira depreciates or is devaluated. That is because it is as good as increasing their salaries when converted to Naira and without any change in work schedules. Will Nigeria not think of reversing it? If you have the idea of reversing devaluation, Nigeria will not think of taking more loans from any apparent higher institutions again. I don’t want to say much here on this.
A practical example is, if you want to buy a car and you save N85,000 per month from your salary for two years, you will be able to have sum of N2,040,000. Right? When the value of the Naira is N450 per dollar, that can get you $4,533 possibly a second-hand car, but when the value of the Naira is devalued to N1,660 per dollar, your total saving changes to $1,229 which may get you a bike instead of a car. You lose money not because you are relaxed but because of the exchange rate while someone else made free money. Would those that save in other currencies freely allow you to reverse it? It requires thinking outside the box.
Another example is, if a farmer sells his farm produce and buys a tractor at N6,000,000 when the exchange rate is N450 to a dollar and another time the rate changes to N1660, meaning that same person needs to sell four times of his earlier produce to buy the same capacity of the tractor. That doesn’t make much sense; working harder to earn small. Rather, it should be work little to earn big.
Some state governments have claimed that salaries take about 80 to 90% of their federal allocations. The real formula is that salaries and expenses should not be more than 40% gross revenue even if it means to relieve some staff.
The function of government is to set such standard formula and enforce it.
For my decade of experience working with big companies, I can tell you that rating performance of leaders in government and private sectors and acting against the low performing ones would help in yielding a better result. There shall be no room for “trial and error” in leadership. Hence, the leader should know exactly what he’s doing. The ‘No-Action’ practice for non-performing leaders has made it open at the state level and other officials to contest for leadership positions not because they have a better idea but to have power over others. Putting consequences for bad performance would help filter the best among people to go for leadership roles.
In line with performance and consequences, I believe my idea of introducing a new currency stated above is the solution to the current economic hardship. If you diligently implement it and it does not work or if it takes the country backward, kill me then! I can sign that as an agreement to show you that I am super confident of the Idea.
Sani, a data analyst writes from Ephraim Estate, off Elelenwo Road, P/Harcourt, River State.
