Last updated on August 5th, 2023 at 09:35 pm
It was January 1, 1973, when the Nigerian pound was replaced with the naira, 1 pound exchanged for N2. It was indeed a happy new year for every Nigerian who had been dreaming that one day the country would have her own currency that didn’t have colonialism undertone.
We never knew the same recycled leaders would bastardise the value of naira barely five decades after.
At the time of this report, 1 Great British Pound Sterling is N565.5007 at the official CBN rate while N708 at the parallel market as of August 19, 2021.
In 1973, it means N20,000 could buy £10, 000, but today N20, 000 can only buy £28 at the parallel market or 35 Pounds at the official rate.
That’s how bad the naira is while the country largely depends on importations and foreign services. Even the president constantly runs to a London hospital for a common headache.
So…
Who coined Naira for Nigeria?
The Federal Commissioner of Finance Chief Obafemi Awolowo (late) was the brain behind the name of the Nigerian currency, naira.
Gen Yakubu Gowon who was the military Head of State at the time first issued coins of the new currency.
It became the first coins that were issued by an independent Nigeria and all circulating coins of the Nigerian pound were nullified by the colonial government of the Federation of Nigeria in 1959.
History was made
The bold decision made Nigeria the last former British colony to abolish the £sd currency system in favour of the naira decimal currency system.
Since then, Nigeria’s government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued several monetary policies, for instance maintaining key interest rates.
The several policies had not translated to anything positive as a result of the attitude of the political elites who loot the country blind.
What’s the value of GBP against the naira?
Although the pound sterling isn’t the most valuable currency in the world, the Kuwaiti Dinar is ( https://infomediang.com/why-kuwaiti-dinar-valuable-than-us-dollar ), it remains the king over the naira because of so many factors, which include:
- Hundreds of Nigerian students in UK institutions
- Patronage of the UK hospitals by Nigerians including the president
- Foreign aids from UK
- The exodus of Nigerian doctors in UK hospitals
- Nigerians who provide service in the UK and earn in pounds etc
So, how many pounds do you need to have N1,000,000 in Nigeria?
By the official exchange rate, you only need 1,770 to get N1,000,000 in Nigeria. By the parallel market rate, £1412 translates to N1 million
In most cases, Nigerians who work in the United Kingdom calculate the value of what they spend in the UK in the naira value.
- £50=N35,150
- £100=N70,300
- £150=N105,450
- £200=N141,600
- £500=N351,500
- £1000=N703,000
- £2000=N1,406,000
- £5000=N3,515,000
- £10,000=N7,030,000
- £100,000=N70,300,000
Can the naira ever have the 1973 value against the GBP?
Photo credit: Toa Heftiba on unsplash.com
