The naira fell against the U.S. dollar at both the official and parallel market on Wednesday marking a sharp reversal from the temporary gain achieved last week.
The domestic currency depreciated 0.55% to close at N874.71 to a dollar at the close of business on Wednesday, data from the NAFEM where forex is officially traded, showed.
This represents an N4.8 loss or a 0.55% decline in the local currency compared to the N869.91 it closed on Tuesday.
The intraday high recorded was N1097.50/$1, while the intraday low was N745.00/$1, representing a wide spread of N352.50/$1.
According to data obtained from the official NAFEM window, forex turnover at the close of the trading was $113.52 million, representing a 60.1% increase compared to the previous day.
Similarly, the naira weakened at the parallel forex market where forex is sold unofficially, the exchange rate depreciated, quoted at N1130/$1, while peer-to-peer traders quoted around N1110.10/$1.
Warnings to Speculators: The Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria has warned those speculating against the naira to be wary.
The President of ABCON, Aminu Gwadabe gave the warning and noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria was set to inflict pain on currency speculators.
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- “What is happening in the market and the continuous naira rebounds are the manifestations of the CBN double-edged sword measures of dollar liquidity injection and naira mopping through the instrumentality of interest rates hikes.
- “It is a good development as it is the greatest risk to speculate, hoard, and substitute naira for other currencies,” Gwadabe declared.
The naira had reversed the depreciating trend it had witnessed this year after the CBN started to clear the forex demand backlog in banks.
- “As we continue to observe developments, there is the need for a caution in attacking the naira, as it all appears that the CBN has gotten the arsenal and the logic to continue to enshrine the success recorded,” ABCON added.
- The association noted that there had been “panic selling as against panic buying”.
The BDC operators called on the apex bank to continue to make clarifications and implement some of their recommendations to include them in the foreign exchange market.
Gwadabe said that would enable BDCs to play their roles of meeting the needs of the critical retail end sector, “as they pose highly pass-through effects of the Central Bank foreign exchange rate policy of stability and elimination of disparities in the overall market.
- “The BDCs are necessary for the demand measures of the apex bank transaction monitoring mechanism, and client’s utilisation with correcting and moderating potential,” he said.
