Nigeria’s currency on Tuesday firmed by N1.00 to exchange with the dollar at N464 on the black market as the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators received over $50 million allocation from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Over 5,000 BDC operators across the country received over $50 million from the CBN after funding their account on Monday.
The Apex bank sells $10,000 twice weekly to the BDC segment of the foreign exchange market. The Apex bank has sold over $300 million to BDC since September 7, 2020, when it resumed dollar sells to them.
Aminu Gwadabe, president, National Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) said the dollar disbursement by the CBN on Tuesday culminated to marginal naira rebounds in the market.
He said the rate closed from N464/$ to N462/$ in the parallel market while the BDCs regulated rate by CBN stood at N386/$ for their invisible transactions.
Gwadabe said the CBN is working on deepening liquidity in the market.
Investigation across Lagos streets where the parallel market operators transact business show that traders were selling dollars at N464 while they buy at between N461 and N463 from individual sellers.
The CBN last week changed the dollar purchase days for BDCs to Tuesday and Thursdays from Mondays and Wednesdays, Gwadabe, told BusinessDay.
At the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, naira weakened by N0.25k as the market opened with an indicative rate of N386.50k on Tuesday as against N386.25k opened with on Monday, data from the FMDQ showed.
The daily forex turnover declined by 9.88 percent to $120.51 million on Tuesday from $133.73 million recorded on Monday at the I&E window.
