Up… up… naira

The Nigerian economy got a marginal boost within the week, as the naira appreciated against major currencies at the official and parallel markets.

At the official market, the naira opened at N157.73 to a dollar on Monday, and closed at N155.43 on Friday, gaining N2.3k.

The currency also appreciated against the dollar by N1 at the Bureau de Change during the week, closing at N165 compared with N166 on Monday.

However, it remained stable at the parallel market, closing at N167 — the same price at which it sold at the beginning of the week.

The naira, which opened at N277.73 to the Pounds on Monday at official market, closed for the week at N243 on Friday, gaining N34.73k.

It remained stable against the Pounds at the Bureau de Change and the parallel markets during the week, trading at N278 to the Pounds at the Bureau de Change, and N270 at the parallel market.

At the official market, the naira against the euro recorded N220 on Friday, causing it to appreciate by N7 compared with N227 at which it stood on Monday.

It also appreciated against the euro, selling at N227 on Friday, compared with N325 at which it sold at the Bureau de Change at the beginning of the week.

The currency was also relatively stable at the parallel market this week, trading at N234 to the euro.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the minister of finance and coordinating minister for the economy, has stated that ascertaining the actual size of the country’s population is the reason behind rebasing Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Speaking at a lecture titled: A Reflection of Nigeria GDP Rebasing: Issues, Facts and Fiction, organized by Kukah Foundation, the minister explained that knowledge of the country’s population would help to direct the economic policies and also manage it to the extent of identifying sectors that are making progress and those not included in the GDP.

“The reason we did the rebasing is to get the actual size of the economy; it was done purely to get the facts on the table,” she said.

“When we saw the final number, we were so afraid and we spent three months with our own experts to arrive at the number. It was neither done for optimism nor for pessimism nor cynicism, and I find it quite astonishing that people are commenting on this.”

She expressed happiness that the rebasing has enabled the federal government to understand that the country’s economy is moving in the same direction as the economies of the rest of the world.

Revealing that the GDP had not been re-based for 24 years, she urged Nigerians to disregard the country’s many challenges and cooperate with the federal government.