Lets Talk About Nairabot, an Exchange Rate That Lives in Facebook Messenger

This is one of the reason I believe in Nigeria. Even if everything else fail, your can still survive with your Talent. No matter the economy of the Jungle, the Lion will never eat grass.

I read an amazing post written by Jason Njoku on the rise of bots… who found a 23-year old developer based in Yaba, named Fowotade “Jihdeh” Babajide.

“Jihdeh” built a Facebook Messenger bot that users can query for each day’s parallel exchange rates and called it Nairabot (Formerly FXbot)… I’m not talking about the fake CBN exchange rate that doesn’t correspond with the parallel market exchange rate. The prices Bureau de Change (I mean Aboki or mallams as they are often called) quote are the best representation of any currency’s value, because they are completely market-driven.

“Jihdeh” Nairabot works like charm. It helps you get quick information on foreign exchange rates in Nigeria. All you have to do is send a message using the command below on your Facebook Messenger.

Commands you can use are:
=> rates (to get parallel market rates)
=> convert 100 usd (to convert 100 dollars to naira by default) or
=> convert 100 dollars or
=> convert 100 pounds to naira
=> wu (to get western union rates) or
=> westy (same as wu above)
=> wu convert 1000 euros (to convert western union 1000 euros to naira) or
=> wu convert 100 pounds to naira(to convert 100 pounds to naira at western union rates)
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=> cbn rates(to get cbn exchange rates)

I actually love it, it replies you within minutes… so accurate but doesn’t recognize any gratitude command.