This is my participation to the post challenge by @leogrowth on the value of HBD in our various locations.
Moving on....Hive backed dollar (HBD) as we know is sort of like the currency of the Hive blockchain and equivalent to USD in value. HBD can be converted to Hive, a token on the blockchain and vice versa.
I currently live in a town called Ikare in Ondo state, Nigeria.
Moving to this town and trying to settle in and adjust to their way of life has been quite challenging.
However, out of all the places I've been to in Nigeria, this town seems to be the cheapest of them all. Cost of most things are quite subsidised.
Conversion rate from Dollar to Nigerian naira differs. Different banks have slightly different conversion rates ranging from #430 to #480 per dollar while the local conversion agents convert at higher rates from #550 to almost #600 per dollar.
1 HBD to #550 can purchase quite a number of things. Examples are; small bottles of hand sanitizer, 1gb worth of browsing data, a plate of food in a local restaurant, a small container of hair cream, 3 small bottles of soda/ carbonated drink, 2 bottles of nail paint, 3 pairs of socks from a local market etc.
I spent about 1 HBD to wash my hair at the salon yesterday and about 3 HBD to make a simple weaving hairstyle.
The country's economy have been crumbling for sometime now especially since after the 2020 corona lockdown. Costs of products and services have increased exponentially and people's purchasing power have in turn decreased significantly.
This increase in price is a huge cause for concern as people struggle to get by. This have also increased the rate of crimes and insecurity issues in my area.
Few years back, I could budget about 10 HBD to buy groceries enough to last for about a week but with the recent inflation rate, 10HBD can only buy groceries that will only last about 2 to 3 days. I recently rented a room self contained apartment for about 73HBD which is quite subsidised compared to the cost of renting the same apartment in some other places in Nigeria. In fact, in some nearby towns, people rent the same single room self contained apartment for about 150HBD or more!
The minimum wage in my country is about 60HBD. Although, a number of private businesses pay their workers less than the minimum wage.
The corona lockdown resulted in a lot of workers being laid off with no hope of where or how to survive. People in my area just try to get by daily in whichever way they can.
I'm not an exception in this case. I've learnt to make budgets and prioritise certain needs over the others so as to meet up with the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter.
One more way I've learnt to beat the inflation challenge is making efforts to earn in dollars so that after conversion, I can have a reasonable amount of money since the value of Nigerian Naira is so low and keeps spiraling down every day!
Part of the survival strategy is investing more HBD by converting to Hive and powering up to increase my chances of curation rewards and earnings on tokens.
So guyss... This is it about the value of HBD in my area and how we've learnt to adapt to the price surg.
Got survival tips?
Let me know what you think in the comment section.
Thanks so much for all the support.🥰
See you in the next Leo Post!💯