Holding Naira is not a smart move

The crypto crash has taught everyone a lesson. One can fall from 6 digits to 3 in the blink of an eye. One minute you're feeling fly, happy with the things you have and the next it's all gone.

Truly, everyone desires to be Rich. To have more than enough but how long one will enjoy this wealth is dependent on your actions and in-actions. With the fluctuating and diminishing value of the world's currencies, leaving your money idle in an account won't lead to an increase but a reduction in value. Even fixed deposits no longer give as much interest as they used to. So the best thing to do is to put the money to work

So what is the best way to grow your money? Invest it in something that can grow faster than the money itself. The problem is most people equate investing to stocks and shares, which are expensive to own in the first place and secondly, they are not liquid. When you want to use your funds, you have to sell your stocks. So how do we invest with less risk but the same returns?

But what is the best way to put our money to work? I'll be talking about the instruments that are readily available to us in the Nigerian financial markets.

Save in Dollar

Not being pessimistic but the Naira to Dollar value will keep on getting worse. With the upcoming election, our politicians are filling their bags with dollars and distributing them at campaign groups and party seminars. This will affect the Naira value more.

The crash has seen so many people convert a substantial amount of their portfolio into Fiat, but holding Naira in one’s account is of no use. Your money keeps depreciating as the Naira value falls. What 100 thousand Naira can buy 3 years ago is more than what 100 thousand Naira can buy today. And the VAT, stamp duties and other constant charges banks deduct can be annoying. I'd rather leave my BCH in my wallet than convert to Naira and leave it in my bank.

I did a practical some weeks back (though I regret not buying more). I bought $10 at 566 Naira on Piggyvest. I made use of Piggyvest and not some custodian wallets for some reasons. One of which is, that my faith in custodian wallets is at its limit right now.

We all (Nigerians) all know Piggyvest. A digital saving platform which gives monthly interest on money saved. They have the Piggyvest, Flex wallet, Flex dollar and many more.

I've been using this for some years and I have a weekly saving goal. This helps me separate my crypto wallet from my expenses wallet and I earn interest while holding my money unlike banks

However, the wallet I'm focusing on today is the Flex wallet. Here you can buy dollars and hold with monthly interest coming in. 2023 might see a huge decline in the value of the Naira, so buying dollars might be a smart move.

The $10 I bought at N566, which was N5660 is now worth N6100. Leaving the N5660 in my account won’t increase it, instead, it will reduce, and with the way things are going Naira might keep on depreciating.

I still have a little BCH in my wallet but every other coin in my wallet was converted a long time ago and if this downtrend continues I will buy back but for now, I have it all in dollars instead of Naira.

Side note

For better understanding, look at it this way on Thursday 31st of January 2019 $1 was N362.92. So if you have 150,000 Naira in 2019 that's $413.31 back then. If you have it in dollars that $413.31 will be N171,676.57 today (using the direct bank value of $1 = N415.37). But we all know the Value is much worse on the black market so you might be having well over 200,000 Naira.

Please this is not a piece of Financial advice, no investment has no risk, the level of risk just differs. The value of Naira to Dollar fluctuates, so we might think your $100 will have more value tomorrow but it decreases, therefore DYOR.

Thanks for Reading!💲💚💸

This isn’t an avert for Piggyvest or any app!.