Naira appreciates to N752/$ at parallel market as dollar demand shrinks

The naira, on Thursday, appreciated to N752 per dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market, popularly called the black market.

The figure indicates a N10 or 1.3 percent gain compared to the N766 it traded last week.

Speaking to TheCable in the Victoria Island area of Lagos, Bureaux De Change operators (BDCs) said they purchase the greenback at N745/$, make a gain of N7 and then sell at N752/$.

The street traders attributed the appreciation of the local currency to low demand for dollars by customers.

“No demand since two days before election. Election ended but there is still no demand. People are not buying but dollar is available in the market,” one trader told TheCable.

Also, at the investors and exporters (I&E) forex window, the local currency appreciated by 0.14 percent to N461.35/$ on Wednesday, according to data from the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange – a platform that oversees official foreign exchange trading in Nigeria.

A total of $98.60 million was traded at the exchange on Wednesday — a 105.03 percent increase compared to the $48.09 million recorded on Tuesday.

In October 2022, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), announced the plan to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes, and asked Nigerians to deposit their old notes before January 31, 2023 when they would cease to be legal tender.

Although the deadline was extended to February 10, many Nigerians have found it difficult to obtain the new naira notes.

TheCable had recently reported that President Muhammadu Buhari apologised to Nigerians for the suffering caused by the naira redesign policy.

“I apologise to you for the hardship caused by the change of the naira. It was done to boost the economy of the country, not to cause hardship to anybody,” Buhari had said.