By Queen Kunde
A policy think tank, the Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI), has claimed that Nigeria spent about 388 billion dollars defending the value of the naira between 2000 and 2023, describing the huge expenditure as wasteful because it failed to stop the local currency from losing value.
The group said the spending took place under successive administrations before President Bola Tinubu came to office and unified the country’s multiple foreign exchange windows in 2023.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Dr. Omoniyi Akinsiju, IMPI said the decision to harmonise the foreign exchange market has saved Nigeria an estimated 16.8 billion dollars every year that was previously spent on supporting the naira.
According to the group, despite the massive interventions by past governments, the naira continued to weaken against the dollar throughout the period.
IMPI said records showed that the Obasanjo administration spent about 60 billion dollars defending the naira over eight years, while the Yar’Adua administration spent 58 billion dollars in three years. It said the Jonathan administration spent the highest amount about 145 billion United States dollars in five years while the Buhari administration spent 125 billion United States dollars over eight years.
The think tank argued that the 388 billion dollars could have been invested in growing the economy instead of being used to support the currency.
It noted that despite the huge spending, the naira fell from about 22 naira to one U.S dollar in 1999 to 460 naira to one dollar at the official market by May 2023, while the parallel market rate declined from 80 naira to one U.S dollar to about 780 naira to one dollar during the same period.
IMPI said the Tinubu administration adopted a more effective foreign exchange management strategy, adding that Central Bank interventions in the foreign exchange market between 2024 and 2025 totalled only about 7.8 billion dollars.
It claimed that the new approach helped the naira appreciate by 7.14 per cent within one year in 2025, ending years of continuous decline.
The group also credited the unified exchange rate and the Federal Government’s “Nigeria First” local content policy with making imported goods more expensive, encouraging local production and helping Nigeria record a trade surplus of more than 6.69 trillion naira by the end of 2025.
IMPI further blamed Nigeria’s economic challenges before 2023 on what it described as populist policies pursued by previous administrations.
According to the think tank, its review showed that between 1999 and 2015, the administrations of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan earned about 994.4 billion dollars in oil revenues but left behind combined external and domestic debts of about 65.49 billion dollars and foreign reserves of just 29.61 billion dollars.
The group said the figures raised questions about how the country’s vast earnings were managed, insisting that better fiscal discipline could have produced stronger economic outcomes.
IMPI maintained that the reforms introduced by the Tinubu administration have laid the foundation for a more stable and predictable foreign exchange market while reducing the huge cost previously incurred in defending the naira.
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