Naira falls to N756/$ at parallel market amid high FX demand

The naira, on Friday, tumbled to N756 per dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange market.

The figure represents an depreciation of N8 or 1.1 percent compared to the N748 it traded two weeks ago.

Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators, popularly known as ‘abokis’, who spoke to TheCable in Alade Market, Ikeja, Lagos, quoted the buying rate of the greenback at N750 and the selling price at N756 per dollar, leaving a profit margin of N6.

When asked about the reason for the decline of the naira against the dollar, a currency trader in the market said, “Dollar is going up. It’s not my fault. That’s just how things are.”

Meanwhile, a BDC operator in the Victoria Island area of Lagos said that buying and selling prices stood at N750/$ and N755/$, respectively.

The trader, simply identified as Musa, said there was high demand for the greenback in the street market.

“Demand is much. If there was cash in people’s hands, I believe it would have even gone higher than this because the demand would have increased,” Musa told TheCable.

On the official market side, the local currency depreciated by 0.11 percent to close at N462 per dollar on Thursday, according to details on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange — a platform that oversees official foreign-exchange trading in Nigeria.

On December 15, 2022, commercial banks began dispensing the redesigned naira notes to customers across the country.

The deadline for the validity of old N200, N500 and N1,000 naira notes was initially January 31.

But the deadline sparked controversy as Nigerians could not access new notes, and on Sunday, the CBN announced that the president had approved a 10-day extension.

Subsequently, Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, directed banks to start over-the-counter payment of new naira to customers, with a daily limit of N20,000.