Efio-Ita Nyok|21 June 2016|6:45am
Yesterday 20 June 2016 the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the nation's apex financial institution, officially removed all government influence on determining the exchange rate. It left the determination of exchange rate to market forces.
By this flexible financial exchange rate policy, the Naira was officially devalued to N261 to $1 from N199 to $1. The implication of this policy is that the Dollar wouldn't be available to Black marketers; anybody who needed the Dollar to do business with just had to stroll into any bank to request for it.
However, the bank determines the value of the Naira, not by a fixed exchange rate, but by a general request for the Dollar for that day —but, this wouldn't be below N261 to $1. The implication is that the Naira, beginning from Monday 20 June had been officially devalued by 23%.
Debates have revolved around whether this policy is temporal or will be long term. According to an analysis on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the CBN seem to be test running a set of financial policies to determine what policy or not will be good for the nation's economy.
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Blogger & the Editor of Negroidhaven.org (Negroid Haven)