Historical thought process on the foreign exchange rates: The Nigerian experience

This study looked at the historical thought process on the foreign exchange rates and how it affected the Nigeria foreign rates policy. The study examined the Aristotle’s theories of becoming rich through trade, the mercantilist ideology on trade and exchange, the Mint Parity theory, the Purchasing Power Parity theory and the Balance of Payment theory as well as the diverse policy frameworks of the Bretton Wood Institutions. Various conceptual issues on exchange rates policy and market were also examined and how they relate and affected the Nigerian foreign exchange rates policy. They study climax by using statistical evidence to analyzed the behaviour of the different exchange rates regimes and frameworks in Nigeria from the 1960 to 2022. We observed from historical evidence that, exchange rate theories and policies are driven by increasing once country global trade. The theories and policy frameworks are formulate towards improving exportations and protecting domestic industries. The situation is extreme in the mercantilist and Neo-mercantilist assumptions. It was notice from the analysis of concepts and researchers knowledge of Nigeria that exchange rate policies are not driven by increasing exports and protecting domestic industries. This because the Nigeria major export goods are primary, which prices are not competitive in the global scene owing to our involvement in Organizations of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the industries in the country are highly under-productive owing to ramshackle infrastructural conditions. Unlike the developed and emerging economies that set the pace for exchange rates policies, the situation in Nigeria seems different since the foreign exchange market depicts the picture of the under-ground markets. This is seen in the spread between official exchange rates and the parallel market rates. Hence, the study concluded that the foreign exchange rates managers in Nigeria should reconsidered their position in the Bretton Wood Institutions and adopt strict Protectionism or Neo-Mercantilist approach to correct the higher imbalance or instability in the Nigeria foreign exchange market as shown in Figure 6 of this study.