This evening, I went out with some naira notes in my pocket, just to go get few items. My budget was quite low, I was intending to buy the items and yet have some balance left. I was so disappointed when the few items I picked went above my budget, but I couldn't drop any of the items, since they were necessities. They were things I couldn't do without.
I once again witnessed the depreciating nature of our economy, which reflects in the lost of value of the naira notes and the inflation in prices of every product in the market.
Nigerian naira is losing its value on daily basis against the U.S dollars. This wouldn't have been a big problem for a country that manufactures most of its consumables, but that is not the case with us, we depend largely on importation. Most of what we consume are imported from other nations. Even products like crude oil and some agricultural produce, which we are massively blessed with, are processed into finished goods in another country and sold back to us at an exorbitant rate.
Some products, especially electronic gadgets which are mostly imported into the country, have inflated by over 300% in few months. Sadly it isn't stopping.
My friend who deals on phone accessories, narrated how a screen of phone whose price was only 8000 naira few months back now cost about 25,000 thousand naira. That's more than three times its previous price.
As a result of this outrageous inflation rate, saving money in naira has been a waste of money and time.
If you had saved 100 thousand naira few months back, today that money can no longer purchase what 50 thousand could have purchased as at the time of savings. Saving money in naira is tantamount to losing part of your money.
Lost in value or purchasing power is the true lost of money, not necessarily the deduction in figures. The figures might remain the same while the money is lost.
A lot of Nigerians being aware of the downward trend of the economy, massively adopted crypto.
Around December last year the country was ranked by some reputable crypto outfit, as the second largest Bitcoin market in the world after the United States of America.
It should interest you to know that some users of crypto currencies in Nigeria are not active traders, they simply adopted cryptos as a means of storing assets, since the local currency can't be trusted.
For early adopters, the last crypto bull run saw a lot of them smiling to the bank. Others who were lured by the testimonies of the early adopters, bought Bitcoin at its all time high.
During the sudden outrageous dip there were tears everywhere.
Some who only wanted to store up crypto asset due to the depreciation in the value of the country's centralized currency, came and met a worse situation. Anyways unlike Nigerian naira, the value of Bitcoin and most popular cryptos are rising again. To Those who exercised patience during the dip might yet smile again.
But then if you belong to a depreciating economy like ours and you are only interested in a better way of saving your money instead of saving it in the ever depreciating naira, you should consider buying a stable coin. On the list of stable coins, USDT takes the lead.
If you're not in for the drama of the frequent dip and bull run, but you need a better way of saving your money, then a stable coin like USDT should be your sure bet.