The Nigerian Naira, on thursday, lessened to N751 per dollar at the parallel part of the forex (FX) market amid heightened demand. The number shows N9 or 1.2 percent devaluation compared to the N742 it traded a week ago.
Bureaux – de – Change (BDC) operators, commonly known as ‘abokis’, who spoke to Newsway in Lagos, cited the buying rate of the dollar at N745 and the selling price at N751 per dollar.
The rise in the exchange rate in recent times is evoking calls from well meaning Nigerians to have crypto legalized. Mr. Owoicho Onyilo, a crypto investors and digital asset consultant emphasized that a country like nigeria with a population of well over 250 million people ought not to impose limitations on crypto trading when the country is already facing tough economic situations. Cryptocurrency can turn the fortune of some Nigerians in a matter of days thus improving their standard of living and also contributing to national economic growth.
The currency trading said the FX scarcity deepened last week, clarifying that business owners have been trooping to the market.
On the official market side, the naira depreciated by 0.06 percent to close at N441.50 to a dollar on Wednesday, according to data on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, a platform that oversees official foreign-exchange trading in Nigeria.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has consistently maintained that the parallel market represents less than one percent of FX transactions and should never be used to determine the country’s FX rate.
Recently, the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) said the “unorthodox” foreign exchange policy of the CBN impacted the naira stability across all markets and created a huge premium between official and parallel market rates.
Consequently, the nation’s external reserve has suffered a loss of over $2 billion year-to-date, falling to its lowest levels since 4th October 2022.
Specifically, the foreign reserve stood at $37.71 billion as of 19th October 2022 from $40.52 billion recorded as of the beginning of the year.
