Naira appreciates to N890/$ at parallel market

The naira, Nigeria’s legal tender, is currently trading at N890 per dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market.

The figure represents an appreciation of 60 or 6.3 percent from the N950 it traded last week.

Speaking to TheCable on Wednesday afternoon, Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators in the Victoria Island area of Lagos said the naira has been steadily gaining against the US currency at the street market.

They put the buying price of the dollar at N870 and the selling price at N890, leaving a N20 profit margin.

“Dollar has been dropping. Yesterday, I sold it for N930. No matter how the dollar goes up, it always comes back down. That’s how it is,” a currency trader in the Victoria Island market told TheCable.

Meanwhile, currency traders in the Agbara area of Ogun state said they are currently buying the local currency at N850/$ and selling it for N860 per dollar.

At the investors and exporters (I&E) forex window, the local currency depreciated by 4.08 percent to close at N774.77/$ on Tuesday , according to details on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange — a platform where FX is officially traded.

An exchange rate of N799.9 to the dollar was the highest rate recorded within the day’s trading before it settled at N774.77.

The data also showed that forex worth $95.79 million was transacted among market dealers.

On Monday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it would take new measures to stabilise the naira against the dollar.

Folasodun Shonubi, acting governor of the CBN, said President Bola Tinubu was worried about the consistent fall of the local currency against the greenback, hence efforts would be made to curb the situation.

“We do not believe that the changes going on in the parallel market are driven by pure economic demand and supply, but are touched by speculative demand from people,” Shonubi said.

“Some of the plans and strategies, which I am not at liberty to share with you, means sooner rather than later, the speculators should be careful because we believe the things we’re doing, when they come to fruition, may result in significant losses to them.

“But my presence here is more about the concerns the president has and his needs to know that we are doing something about it, assurances of which I have given him totally.

“We are doing things which will significantly impact the market in a few days time and we will all see it.”