Nigeria’s currency on Friday appreciated to N375 per dollar from its decline to N410/$ on Thursday, after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ruled out the possibility of devaluation at this time.
Investigation by BusinessDay show that the greenback was traded at a selling rate of N375/$ and buying rate of N365/$ across black market areas in Lagos.
For fear of not losing out completely, some Nigerian who bought dollars to hedge against devaluation, were seen selling back to black market operators, after the Apex bank’s announcement.
At the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, the naira was quoted at the rate of N368.47 to the dollar, gaining 1.48 percent over N374.00k/$ traded the previous day, data from FMDQ show.
The local currency remained stable at N306.95k per dollar at the official (CBN) window. However the foreign exchange daily turnover rose to $156.42 million on Friday from $106.04 million recorded the previous day.
On Thursday night, the CBN issued a statement, saying that it had begun a robust and coordinated investigation in collaboration with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and related agencies to uncover the unscrupulous persons and FX dealers who are creating this panic, promising that the full weight of the nation’s rules and regulations would be meted out to them, including, but not limited to, being charged for economic sabotage.
“In light of current circumstances and macroeconomic fundamentals, the CBN has not devalued the Naira. Consequently, the CBN will invoke the full weight of applicable sanctions on any persons and authorized dealers found to be involved in such disruptive and speculative market behaviour,” the regulator said.
