26 Africa Currencies That Are Stronger Than Naira

Last updated on July 28th, 2022 at 11:43 am

In 1972 1USD was just 0.658 naira at the official market rate. For 13 years, USD/NGN at the forex market remained under NGN1.

That was the time the Nigerian currency was the pride of every Nigerian as this can be seen in our timeline of the official CBN exchange rate at the forex market

For the first time since Nigeria adopted its currency, the naira hit NGN1 and crossed NGN2 in 1986 during the regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

Today, Nigeria and its economy are facing multi-faceted problems, though they are still being rated as the strongest economy in Africa, the country borrows money to pay its workers. Unexplainable Contradiction!

At the time of this publication, USD/NGN is NGN415.83. The naira is not only weak against the United States Dollar, it can’t also be found on the list of global currencies for international transactions.

On the African soil, there are more than two dozen of currencies in Africa that are stronger than the naira. In the foreign exchange market, below African currencies are more valuable than the naira (not in ascending order):

Currencies	Pair Against Naira	Value in Naira
Tunisian dinar is the strongest currency in Africa	TND/NGN	130.66
Libyan dinar	LYD/NGN	85
Ghanian cedi	GHS/NGN	49.03
Moroccan dirham	MAD/NGN	40.27
Botswana pula	BWP/NGN	32.91
Seychellois rupee	SCR/NGN	32.48
Namibian dollar	NAD/NGN	24.70
Eritrea nakfas	ERN/NGN	27.70
South African rand	ZAR/NGN	24.74
Egyptian pound	EGP/NGN	21.97
Sao Tomean dobras	STN/NGN	17.22
Swazi lilangeni	SZL/NGN	24.73
Zambian kwacha	ZMW/NGN	25.45
Mozambican metical	MZN/NGN	6.51
Lesotho loti	LSL/NGN	24.73
The Gambian dalasi	GMD/NGN	7.69
Liberian dollar	LRD/NGN	2.71
Cape Verdean escudo	CVE/NGN	3.82
Djiboutian franc	DJF/NGN	2.34
Kenyan shilling	KES/NGN	3.50
Ethiopian Birr	ETB/NGN	7.90
Mauritian ouguiya	MRU/NGN	11.05
Mauritian rupee	MUR/NGN	9.13
Zimbabwean dollar	ZWD/NGN	1.14
Algerian dinar	DZD/NGN	2.85

On the continent, the naira isn’t the weakest as there are more than 20 other African currencies that weaker than the Nigerian currency. On the continent, the naira carries some irrelevant weight against some legal tenders.

Note: Some of the currencies listed above are also battling to repress high inflation. For instance, Ghana is facing what can be described as hyperinflaion.