By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Naira is amongst the world’s most stable currency, according to Akin Dawodu, Chief Operating Officer (C0O) and Public Sector Head for Citi Nigeria Limited.

Dawodu made this assertion Wednesday at the Citi financial journalists training held at its corporate head office in Lagos Nigeria.

According to him, the Naira is relatively stable than the South African Rand, “We all remember the second tier foreign exchange market 70 Kobo was $1.00, and during the structural adjustment era, the Naira was allowed to be devalued from $1.00 to N20.00,” he said.

He affirmed that the idea then was that if the Naira was devalued, it will make Nigeria competitive in the international market in terms of export. “The currency went from 70 Kobo to N20 and so on, nothing happened because Nigeria had no capacity,” Dawodu said.

“The Naira can go for N800 to $1.00 and Nigeria will still be uncompetitive, all it will do is to cause inflation,” he said.

Dawodu said a decline in the prices of crude oil has a weakening effect on the Naira and vice versa. He said before 2003 to 2005 when oil prices were low, the Naira was constantly losing value.

The Citi COO further affirmed that the Naira after this period revalued and has been relatively stable, “it has slipped again; but not much. It shows the relationship between crude prices and exchange rate,” he said.

He said the target band for dollar and Naira at the Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) is N155+/-3% and the band mid-point was raised from N117 to N140 in 2008 and to N155 in November 2011.

As at the time of filling in this report, Bureau de change operators are buying $1.00 to N161 and selling $1.00 to N163.00.

Also, official exchange rate as at September 19, 2013 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shows that $1.0 goes for N154.76 as buying price and N155.76 as selling price; while the CBN’s rate is at N155.26.

Data from Money Converter.com shows that Latest Exchange Rates is one (1) South African Rand to 16.61817 Nigerian Naira.