Michael Daramola

Project Manager | Data Analyst | Researcher | Policy Analyst and Social Justice Advocate |

[Michael Daramola @GemstoneMD]

@Chetuyachinago Reminds me of a prominent past Nigerian leader who said "Never say no to the IMF and World Bank, but NEVER do their bidding".

[Michael Daramola @GemstoneMD]

@Chetuyachinago I have been keenly following your tweets for some time now. And I am glad I came across your account, which does a thorough analysis and justice to the truths we all need to know.

Especially because I found someone who conveys the thoughts in my mind with depth. Thank you.

[Slim @onu_slim]

Please take time to read this

The IMF just said the naira is still undervalued by 25.6%. Let me break this down with actual mathematics so nobody can tell you this is opinion.

The IMF says based on Nigeria’s economic fundamentals, the naira should be trading at N1,131 to the dollar. The official rate today is N1,356 to the dollar. The difference is N225 per dollar. That is not a small gap, it is a 19.9% overcharge on every single dollar transaction happening in Nigeria right now.

Let me show you what that costs real people.

A Nigerian parent paying university fees abroad of $10,000 per year is paying N13,560,000 at today’s rate. At the rate the IMF says the naira should be, that same $10,000 costs N11,310,000. That parent is losing N2,250,000 every year purely because the naira is still undervalued. That is capital that should be staying in a Nigerian household.

A business importing raw materials worth $50,000 per shipment is paying N67,800,000 at today’s rate. At the correct fundamental rate it should cost N56,550,000. The business is absorbing an extra N11,250,000 per shipment that it did not earn and cannot recover except by raising prices on you, the Nigerian consumer. That cost does not disappear. It transfers.

Now look at the bigger picture.

Nigeria’s total merchandise imports in 2024 were approximately $27 billion. At the current undervalued rate versus where the naira should be, that N225 gap per dollar means Nigerian importers collectively overpaid by roughly N6.075 trillion in a single year. That excess cost did not go to Nigerian workers or Nigerian businesses. It evaporated into exchange rate distortion while the CBN defended the rate with reserves instead of fixing the fundamentals.

Now this is the part that should make you angry.

The REER appreciated 32% in 2025. That sounds like progress. But the NEER, the actual exchange rate you see on your screen, depreciated by 5.2% in the same period. How do both happen at the same time? Because domestic inflation was running so hot that even a weakening naira looked stronger against equally weakening trading partner currencies. Nigeria did not get stronger. Everything got more expensive together and the statistics smoothed it over.

Tinubu floated the naira in 2023. Nigerians absorbed the devaluation shock. Petrol prices rose. Cost of living rose. Businesses collapsed. The promise was that the market would correct and the naira would find its true value. Three years later the IMF is saying the naira is still 25.6 percent below fair value. Nigerians paid the full price of the adjustment and received less than three quarters of the correction.

You were charged for a full surgery. The doctor only completed 74.4 percent of the operation. And he is asking for more time.

[AreaCheck @areacheck1]

What changed your opinion about an area after visiting at night?

[Michael Daramola @GemstoneMD]

@raycrypto_1 I'minterested

[AreaCheck @areacheck1]

Some streets look calm and organized st 2 pm.

Visit again at 8 pm, that's when you'll find out if there's a bar nearby, a worship centre that runs overnight programs or an evening market that never closes until 10 pm.

#Areacheck #Rentsmart #Househunting

[AreaCheck @areacheck1]

Every compound has its policies.

The parking space issues.

The noisy and troublesome neighbor.

The person who never contributes for repairs but complains the loudest.

House hunting doesn't prepare you for any of these.

#Areacheck #Rentsmart #LagosLiving

[AreaCheck @areacheck1]

One thing we often underestimate during house hunting is the road leading to the apartment.

The rent may be affordable, but if every rainfall turns your route home into an obstacle course, you'll pay for it daily in stress.

#Areacheck #Rentsmart

[Michael Daramola @GemstoneMD]

Baba Seyi, sir.

The mandate is no longer "dating".

Cooking gas is now 2400 naira per kg.

The poor are now dying.

[Michael Daramola @GemstoneMD]

@Letter_to_Jack The same way they recovered thebody of the beheaded teacher in Oyo.

[AreaCheck @areacheck1]

Most people inspect the apartment but ignore the area. Here are 10 things to check outside the apartment before paying rent in Lagos.

A Thread.

[Michael Daramola @GemstoneMD]

@areacheck1 I'll regret power supply quicker than any other.

[AreaCheck @areacheck1]

Which would make you regret paying rent faster?

Flooding, poor power supply, noise pollution, or terrible road access?

Tell us why.

#Areacheck #Househunting #AreaMatters

[AreaCheck @areacheck1]

There are streets in Lagos where you can tell there is power outage without looking outside.

The sound of multiple generators starting almost immediately.

That's the kind of information you deserve to know beforehand.

#Areacheck #LagosHousing #Powersupply

[AreaCheck @areacheck1]

What's the biggest surprise you discovered AFTER moving in?

Not during inspection. Not before payment.

After moving in.

Someone at our X space last Saturday found out after moving that the flat before theirs was a brothel. That was shocking.

#Areacheck #Rentsmart

[Michael Daramola @GemstoneMD]

@areacheck1 Ordinarily, I spend 2 to 3 hours in traffic on Ikorodu road, which can become 6 to 8 wicked hours on a rainy day.

[AreaCheck @areacheck1]

One of the most expensive mistakes in house hunting is assuming a nice apartment automatically means a good living experience.

Sometimes, the apartment is fine, the area is the problem.

Areacheck provides area intelligence that helps you avoid such mistakes.

#Areacheck

[Chetuya Chinagolum @Chetuyachinago]

Every Nigerian needs to pay very close attention to this official press release by the Finance Minister of Nigeria, Taiwo Oyedele. This serves as the direct response by the Federal Government to the International Monetary Fund 2026 Article IV Concluding Statement on Nigeria.

The recent IMF statement on Nigeria is overflowing with glowing praises for the Tinubu Administration and their supposedly brilliant economic policies.
The IMF is loudly cheering for the reunification of the foreign exchange market because the gap between the official and black market exchange rates has remained below 5%, which is absolutely fantastic for foreign investors since they love predictability, guaranteed margins, and zero currency friction. They also excitedly applaud the fact that Nigeria's foreign reserves have built back up, supposedly providing a comfortable cushion against global economic shocks. Finally, the IMF highly commended the Tinubu government's decisions to eliminate deficit monetization (which stopped the CBN from printing money to fund government projects) and to permanently remove petrol subsidies.

Now, the Tinubu Administration, speaking through the office of the Finance Minister, is proudly parading this IMF report like a shiny gold medal. They are framing this praise as an "independent validation" that their brutally painful economic policies over the past few years are finally yielding positive macroeconomic results. The glaring problem here is that this is not something Nigeria as a sovereign country should be celebrating, and this is entirely because of who the IMF actually works for and who dictates their underlying policies. The G7 nations and Western superpowers entirely control the IMF board, and the institution itself exists strictly to protect the financial interests of international creditor nations, massive global investment banks, ruthless hedge funds, and wealthy foreign bondholders. The primary job of the IMF is merely to ensure that the global financial system remains perfectly stable and that struggling developing nations never default on their massive, crippling debts to foreign creditors. Therefore, the IMF works exclusively for the lenders (the global financial-industrial complex), absolutely not for the bleeding borrowers like Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, or any other struggling African nation.

To see how bad this is, just observe this currency unification being praised by the IMF as a massive win for the Tinubu Administration. They are celebrating simply because the exchange rate is now mathematically stable and investors are finally happy. This is spectacularly good for foreign speculators, but it is deeply catastrophic for us because the currency stabilized at a spectacularly weaker level of N1,400 per dollar, compared to N770 in the black market and N450 in the official rate before this administration took over.
So yes, the currency is technically unified, but at a permanently crippled level. Since Nigeria is a heavily import-dependent economy, this unified weakness has made the cost of food, life-saving medicines, basic hospital bills, school fees, transportation, building materials, imported spare parts, and daily survival astronomical, thereby permanently destroying the purchasing power of everyday Nigerians.

Furthermore, the IMF congratulating the Tinubu Administration on increasing the country's foreign reserves might sound like brilliant news, until you suddenly realize that it is this exact, deliberate policy that violently crippled our local industries. Most of the money that makes up these bloated new foreign reserves was forcefully squeezed out of the removal of petrol subsidies, a move that has deeply suffocated our local businesses, artisans, manufacturers, and logistics companies who rely entirely on petrol generators to survive. But this is not even the full tragic story. Even the bloody change they violently squeezed out of the dying Nigerian middle class was not enough to impress these foreign investors. To aggressively entice them, the Tinubu Administration spiked the base interest rate from 18% up to a staggering 27%. This was no mistake. In the US, for example, when you lend money to the government by buying Treasury Bills, federal bonds, municipal securities, or index funds, the interest you expect to make per year is at most 5%. But the Nigerian government is desperately signaling to these foreign speculators and international bondholders to come drop their dollars in Nigeria, effectively guaranteeing them a massive 27% interest by the end of the year. This might look like a huge economic win as foreign capital flows into the country, but this hot money never ends up in the pockets of ordinary Nigerians. It is never used to build schools, pay hospital bills, subsidize agriculture, fix dead refineries, or reduce house rents. The money just sits idly in the central bank to impress the IMF and World Bank creditors, proving to them that Nigeria is highly liquid and perfectly safe to lend to.

The absolute worst part of this trap is that it is not just the CBN increasing the base interest rates. The commercial banks are naturally forced to aggressively increase their lending rates even higher. Today, some predatory commercial banks are charging desperate businesses as much as 35% to 40% interest on loans. This financial terrorism has forced countless local businesses to drastically cut down production, lay off massive numbers of staff, and permanently close their branches in remote areas across Nigeria, forcing them to operate strictly within the suffocating limits of their own personal, depleted capital. It is practically mathematically impossible to borrow from a Nigerian bank, scale up production, create actual wealth, and employ the millions of struggling graduates in our society when you first have to pay 40% to the bank. Add that to the reunified currency making imports insanely expensive, meaning businesses still have to pay extra for imported raw materials, clear goods at exorbitant customs duties, pay multiple state taxes, and buy the hyper-expensive fuel that spiked in price due to the celebrated subsidy removal.

It is very possible to analyze this insulting press release further, but there is absolutely no need to waste the time. Clearly, this administration should not be celebrating warm handshakes, pat-on-the-back press releases, and polite diplomatic smiles from foreign creditors and international bondholders. They should be focusing entirely on the bleeding Nigerians who are brutally forced to carry the crushing, suffocating burden of these massive economic miscalculations just to please a comfortable, wealthy board of directors at the World Bank and the IMF.

[AreaCheck @areacheck1]

Rainfall is one one of the best neighborhood inspection tools. Here are 7 things heavy rainfall can reveal about an area before you move there.

A Thread.