
Naira and dollar
Nigerian naira has continued to crash against the dollar at the exchange rate market.
The naira on Tuesday exchanged N460 to a dollar at the parallel market as the currency continued its decline.
This is despite the resumption of forex sales to the Bureau de Change Operators.
The naira had earlier dropped from N480/$ following the Central
Bank of Nigeria’s announcement to resume forex sales to the BDCs, and
exchanged at N440/$ as of Thursday.
The CBN on September 7, sold $51m to 5,180 BDCs when it commenced sales.
The Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday, said the
drop in crude oil earnings, as well as the drop in foreign portfolio
inflows significantly affected the supply of foreign exchange into
Nigeria.
He said this during the 13th annual Banking & Finance
Conference, being organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of
Nigeria with the theme, “Facilitating a sustainable future: The role of banking and finance,” on Wednesday.
The event took place online in both Lagos and Abuja.
Emefiele said, “In order to adjust for the decrease in supply
of foreign exchange, the naira depreciated at the official window from
N305/$ to N360/$ and to N380/$.
“These adjustments along with increased efforts to restrict
undue speculative activities, has led to a growing unification of rates
across all the forex market segments.
“In addition, the band between the parallel market and the
official exchange rate over the past month, has narrowed recently due to
some of the measures taken by the CBN to curb illegal forex
transactions.”
He explained that with the decline in the country’s foreign
exchange earnings and subsequent adjustments in the value of the naira
vis-à-vis the US dollar, the CBN had continued to implement a demand
management framework, which was designed to support improved production
of items that could be produced in Nigeria, and further conservation of
its external reserves.
He said, “These measures have helped to prevent a significant decline in our reserves.
“Our external reserves currently stand at $36bn and are sufficient to cover 8months of import of goods and services.”
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