What Naira Depreciation Means for You

A rate of ₦1,500 per dollar means one dollar costs 1,500 naira, and one naira buys 1/1,500 of a dollar. When the rate rises, the naira buys less foreign currency: it has depreciated. It touches everyone, because a lot of what Nigerians buy or plan is priced in dollars, pounds or euros, or in goods that are imported, and a lot of what Nigerians earn and save is in naira. When the price of a dollar is 7.89 times what it was, as it is on the official annual averages for 2025 against 2015, every dollar-priced cost has become 7.89 times bigger in naira, and every naira you kept has become worth about one eighth of what it was in dollars.

There are two ways to measure what your naira lost, and they do not give the same answer. Against the dollar, 2015 to 2025 cost the naira 87.33%. Against prices at home, measured by the consumer price index, the naira lost 81.53% of its buying power, because prices rose 5.41 times. The tool above shows both for your own numbers, so you can see which one matters for the decision you are making.

How Depreciation Affects Purchasing Power in Nigeria

Purchasing power is what your money buys. It falls in two steps when the naira weakens. First, anything that is imported, or priced in dollars, costs more naira straight away. Later, higher costs feed into local prices, and the general price level rises. The World Bank's consumer price index for Nigeria (2010 = 100, from the IMF) went from 158.93 in 2015 to 860.32 in 2025. Prices at home rose 5.41 times, and the dollar rose 7.89 times.

The result for money that just sits: ₦1,000,000 kept in cash from 2015 would buy in 2025 only what ₦184,738 bought in 2015, a loss of 81.53% of its buying power at home. In dollars it fell from $5,196.42 to $658.60. To buy the same goods you would now need ₦5,413,059, and to buy the same dollars, ₦7,890,139.

The World Bank's inflation figures show how fast the price level moved in recent years: 24.66% in 2023, 33.24% in 2024 and 23.01% in 2025, measured by consumer prices. Use the Purchasing power tab above for your own amount and years.

What the Naira's Fall Did to Salaries and the Minimum Wage

A salary is paid in naira, so a weaker naira cuts what it buys abroad and, over time, at home. Take an example, not a real person: someone paid ₦200,000 a month in 2019 earned about $651.63 at that year's average official rate. To be worth the same in dollars in 2025 the salary would need to be ₦989,428 a month. To buy the same goods at home, measured by consumer prices, it would need to be ₦643,219. A raise that only matches one of the two leaves a gap on the other.

The national minimum wage in dollars

The national minimum wage was set at ₦30,000 by an act that President Muhammadu Buhari signed on 18 April 2019, and at ₦70,000 by a law that President Bola Tinubu signed on 29 July 2024, according to news reports of both signings. At the official annual average rate of each year, ₦30,000 in 2019 was worth $97.75, and ₦70,000 in 2024 was worth $47.33. Adjusted for consumer prices, ₦30,000 in 2019 is about ₦78,435 in 2024 prices, so, on the national price index, the 2024 minimum of ₦70,000 is below the 2019 minimum in buying power at home. Your own prices and your own state may differ.

Enter your own pay in the Salary tab. It shows what your pay would need to be in the later year to keep its dollar value, and to keep its buying power at home, and the raise you would need from what you earn now.

What It Does to Naira Savings

Money in a naira account, or in cash, faces both hurdles: the dollar's price and the price level at home. Interest helps, but it has to beat them. Suppose ₦1,000,000 was saved in 2015 at 10% a year, a rate used here as an example and not as a quote from any bank. After ten years it would be ₦2,593,742, and yet it would buy 52.08% less at home than the original ₦1,000,000 did in 2015, and be worth 67.13% less in dollars. To keep its buying power at home, savings needed to grow 18.40% a year over that period, and to keep their dollar value, 22.94% a year.

That is the useful test for any savings plan: compare the yearly return with the yearly rise in prices and, if you will spend dollars, in the dollar. The Naira savings tab gives both figures for your years. It does not say where to save, and it assumes no tax and no fees.

How the Fall Affects Your Japa Plan

Japa costs are priced abroad. Tuition, visa and exam fees, proof of funds, flights, the first months of rent and a laptop are quoted in dollars, pounds, euros or Canadian dollars, while most people save in naira. So the naira cost of a japa plan moves with the exchange rate, even when the foreign price does not change. A plan that needed $10,000 (an example amount, not the cost of any visa or course) cost ₦3,069,210 at the 2019 average official rate, and ₦15,183,809 at the 2025 average, which is ₦12,114,600 more for the same $10,000.

Three things follow. A saving target set in naira loses value against a dollar target, so set the target in the foreign currency and convert it each time you save. The later you start, the more naira each dollar costs if the naira keeps weakening, and the fall can also go the other way. And the fees may change too, so check the current amounts on the official website of the country and the school before you fix a budget.

The Japa and dollar costs tab takes the amount you were quoted, shows its naira cost in the two years, and works out the monthly saving for the number of months you have. It also shows the cost at today's parallel market rate. Official pages with current requirements include the UK government's Student visa page.

School Fees Abroad, Imported Goods and Dollar Bills

The same arithmetic applies to anything with a dollar price: fees for a child studying abroad, a business that imports stock or equipment, software and streaming subscriptions, rent quoted in dollars, and foreign medical bills. If the price is fixed in dollars, its naira cost rose 7.89 times from 2015 to 2025. If the seller sets a naira price, the seller has to absorb or pass on the rise, and that is one route by which the exchange rate reaches ordinary prices. Small businesses that buy in dollars and sell in naira feel the gap between the two directly, because the rate on the day they order and the rate on the day they sell both matter.

Family Abroad, Remittances and Who Gains

Depreciation is not a loss for everyone. A family that receives dollars, pounds or euros from abroad gets more naira for each unit. On the official annual averages, $100 sent home was worth ₦19,244 in 2015 and ₦151,838 in 2025. Prices rose too, so the fair test is what it buys: in 2015 prices, ₦151,838 in 2025 is worth ₦28,050, a change of +45.76% in buying power at home. For a family with income only in naira, the same years cut buying power, so the same fall has very different effects on families with and without income in foreign currency.

Remittances are large. The World Bank reports that Nigeria received about $22.79 billion in personal remittances in 2025, from the IMF's balance of payments data. Personal remittances are personal transfers plus the pay of people who work abroad, in current US dollars. Use the Money from abroad tab for your amount and years.

The Economy in Dollars

Dollar figures for the whole country move with the rate too. The World Bank's GDP per person, in current US dollars, was $2,899 in 2022 and $1,084 in 2024, and $1,224 in 2025. Because it is measured in dollars, a naira that is worth less in dollars tends to pull it down, even if output in naira grows. Comparisons of Nigerian incomes with incomes abroad, when they are made in dollars, shift for the same reason.

Questions to Ask Before You Decide

• Which currency do my costs use? If they are in dollars, track them in dollars and convert at each payment.
• Which rate applies to me? The official rate and the parallel market rate can differ. Use the one you would really pay.
• Does my pay or my savings rate beat both hurdles? Compare it with the yearly rise in the dollar and in prices, as the tabs above do.
• How long is my plan? The longer the plan, the more a change in the rate matters, in either direction.
• Have I checked the current fees? Fees, funds and rules change, so use the official source, not an old figure.

This page is arithmetic on published data. It does not tell you what to buy, where to save or when to travel, and it does not predict the rate.

The Formulas

• Naira depreciation = 1 − (start rate ÷ end rate). It is the share of its dollar value that the naira lost.
• Rise in the dollar price = (end rate ÷ start rate) − 1. It is how much more naira one dollar costs.
• Yearly rate, over y years: 1 − (start ÷ end)^(1 ÷ y) for the naira, and (end ÷ start)^(1 ÷ y) − 1 for the dollar price. Years are counted as days divided by 365.25.
• An amount: ₦A buys A ÷ rate dollars. The dollars lost are A ÷ start rate − A ÷ end rate, and the naira needed to match the start's dollar value is A × end rate ÷ start rate.
• Buying power at home: what ₦A bought in the first year is A × (first-year index ÷ later-year index) in the first year's prices. The naira needed to buy the same goods is A × (later index ÷ first index).
• Interest to keep up: (later value ÷ first value)^(1 ÷ years) − 1, using the dollar rate for the dollar and the price index for prices.

Why There Are Two Percentages

The rate moved from ₦192.44 to ₦1,518.38 between 2015 and 2025. The dollar's price in naira went up by 689.01%, because ₦1,518.38 is 7.89 times ₦192.44. The naira's value in dollars went down by 87.33%, because a naira bought $0.005196 and now buys $0.000659. They describe the same move from two sides. The dollar price can rise by more than 100%, and the naira's loss can never pass 100%. If the dollar doubles, the naira has lost half its value. Keep this in mind when you read a headline that says the naira "fell 70%" or the dollar "rose 230%": they can mean the same thing.

Depreciation and Devaluation

Depreciation is a fall in the naira's value that comes from the market. A devaluation is a decision by the authorities to lower the official value of the currency. The calculator does not tell them apart: it measures the change in the rate, whatever the cause. A large jump in a single year, such as the official rate's rise between 2023 and 2024, is a change in the rate that you can measure, and this page does not say what caused it.

Official Rate or Parallel Market Rate

The two years mode and the How the Naira's Fall Hits You tabs use the official rate. The World Bank explains that official exchange rates are set by governments, and that other rates recognised by governments include market rates and, in countries with multiple exchange arrangements, principal, secondary and tertiary rates. The recent days mode uses the parallel market rate that we collect, which is what many people pay in cash. The two can differ, and the gap changes over time, so choose the one that matches how you would buy the dollars. Our exchange rate page shows both.

What This Page Uses

The official rates are the World Bank's official exchange rate (LCU per US$, period average) for Nigeria, 1973 to 2025, which the World Bank derives from the IMF's International Financial Statistics. An annual average is the simple average of the daily rates of the calendar year. Prices are the World Bank's consumer price index (2010 = 100) and inflation, also from the IMF. Remittances are the World Bank's personal remittances received, from the IMF's balance of payments data, and GDP per person is its GDP per capita (current US$). The series were last updated on 2026-07-13, and they are used under the CC BY 4.0 licence. They start in 1973 because the naira replaced the Nigerian pound in January 1973, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria. The minimum wage figures are from news reports of the two signings: Channels Television for 2019 and Nairametrics for 2024. The parallel market rates for the recent days mode are our own daily averages, described on our methodology page. The calculations were checked against high-precision arithmetic on 2,700 cases. We last checked on 20 September 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions