The pressure on foreign exchange intensified on Wednesday as Nigeria’s currency has weakened to N490 per dollar on the black market.
The naira depreciation followed the adoption of N410.25k as official rate by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The new official rate shows a 8.24-percent devaluation from N379/$ previously. It also shows a N72.75k spread from parallel market rate of about N483 per dollar.
Across Lagos streets where the black market operates, dollar is trading at N490 (customer buying rate), which is 0.82 percent lower than N486 traded on Tuesday.
Naira also depreciated marginally by 0.09 percent at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window on Wednesday morning. The market opened with naira being quoted at N411.38k as against N411.00k quoted on the previous day, data from the FMDQ indicated.
Read Also: CBN holds interest rate over fragile economic recovery
The foreign exchange daily turnover declined by 38.40 percent to $130.50 million on Tuesday from $211.86 million recorded on Monday.
At the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the foreign exchange market, naira was trading at N486 per dollar on Wednesday morning after weakening by N1 from N485 traded on Monday, abokifx rates showed.
Over 5,000 BDC operators across the country are expected to fund their accounts today (Wednesday) in anticipation of dollar disbursement on Thursday by the CBN. The apex bank sells $10,000 twice weekly to each BDC operator.
Aminu Gwadabe, president, Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), last weekend projected that foreign exchange speculators would lose over N100 billion in the next one month as the CBN sustains massive funding for BDCs.
He said the CBN is committed to improving funding for over 5,000 BDCs nationwide in a new move to deepen market liquidity and protect the naira against speculators.
Gwadabe attributed the continued fall of the naira at the parallel market and Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) forex window to currency speculators hoarding dollars to profit from the currency crisis.
