You might have seen the Business Insider article where it ranked the “strongest” currencies in Africa, and our Naira was missing. Let me help here because BI was totally wrong.
In 2007, when Ghana pegged $1 = 1Cedi (days before that translation, it was $1 = 10,000 old Cedis), Naira was trading around $1= N125. Today, both are about $1 = 15Cedi and $1 = N1600 which means Naira is still ahead.
Nigeria can decide to cut-out two digits in the exchange value with USD (you need to spend money on that as every contract in Nigeria will be off by two digits). Seriously, the strengths of currencies are not defined by pure exchange rate values. This BI article is fundamentally defective and should be ignored. That is not how to rank currencies.
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Note: I USD = 144 Japanese Yen. Does it mean those currencies are “stronger” than Yen? Also, 1USD = 1,325 South Korean won. Does it also mean that Ghana’s Cedi is stronger than South Korea’s Won?
Here is the deal: Central banks work to stabilize national currencies by managing inflation (and some others like the US Federal Reserve add the additional role of boosting employment/economic output via interest rate management). The absolute number is marginal provided that number is stable. So, it is the STABILITY (yes, volatility) that matters.
If Naira is N3,000 and stays within a range of N2990 – N3010 over 6 months, you are better off there than Naira which is oscillating around N1000 to N1600 over the same period.
But if you have to measure by “strong”, consider purchasing power parity. Purchasing power parity (PPP) is a currency conversion rate that compares the purchasing power of different currencies by adjusting for price level differences between countries. It’s calculated by dividing the price of a basket of goods in one location by the price of the same basket in another location. The basket of goods includes those that are part of final expenditures, such as household and government consumption, fixed capital formation, and net exports. PPP is measured in national currency per US dollar.
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You are better off with a ‘weak’ currency if you are big in production and export, because it means that your products will be cheaper and you will sell more. If you are import-dependent, weak currency will weaken and collapse you. The fixation with ‘strong’ currency stems from low productivity, in that case, it makes sense fighting to keep your currency up there. At the end of the day, you must distinguish yourself in the things that matter, so that you can enjoy the twin win of fairly strong and stable currency.