The pressure on the foreign exchange intensified on Tuesday as the dollar was trading at N420 at the black market after oil price crashed to $20 per barrel.
The price of Brent crude has fallen to as low as $20 per barrel as on Tuesday, following the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic globally.
With the current exchange rate, it implies that the Nigerian currency is losing N2.50k per dollar compared to N417.50K traded the previous day.
The dollar can only be purchased from a very few operators in Lagos as many others are not trading due to the COVID-19 lockdown announced by the Federal Government.
“Actually for one month now I have been at home. I have not gone to market and there has not been any transaction since then,” one of the dealers said.
The foreign exchange market opened with an indicative rate of N385.71k/$ on Tuesday, gaining marginally by 0.02 per cent from N385.79k opened on Monday at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, data from FMDQ showed.
