Naira falls as CBN denies 1,599 BDCs access to FX sale

Naira on Thursday fell in value against the dollar at the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) and the parallel market after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) denied 1,599 out of 2,818 BDC operators access to FX sales on Wednesday, due to failure to file documentation on previous dollar purchases.

Consequently, the naira on Thursday weakened against the dollar by N3 or 1.24 percent at the BDC segment, closing at N245/$ compared with N245/$ traded previously.

It also fell in value against the dollar by N4 or 1.64 percent as it closed at N248/$ as against N244/$ the previous day at the parallel market.

Meanwhile, the CBN’s FX clearing rate slide by 0.02 percent as the apex bank reversed to N197/$ from N196.97 the previous day.

However, at the inter-bank market, the local currency gained N0.30k or 0.15 percent against the greenback, closing at N198.87k on Thursday from N199.17k the previous day, data from FMDQ revealed.

The naira is likely to ease further next week after the central bank suspended its sale of dollars to some BDCs over their failure to file documentation on previous dollar purchases, Reuters reports.

The central bank last week asked all BDC operators to submit accounts showing their dollar usage at the start of each week before they can access future sales, a move traders say was aimed at curbing speculation.

Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, had said saves almost $100 million per week on FX as the number of BDC operators drop by 58.42 percent to 1200 from 2886 following the implementation of the Bank Verification Number (BVN).

The unofficial market accounts for less than 5 percent of total dollar trades in Nigeria. The bank sells around $30,000 to each operator every week.