Naira gains 3.6% to trade N540/$1 at parallel market

The Nigerian naira has appreciated by 3.6% to N540/$1 at the parallel market — almost four months after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stopped FX sales to Bureaux De Change (BDCs) operators.

The local currency gained N20 to close at N540 on Wednesday from N560 it opened the weekly trading on Monday.

Bureaux De Change traders in Lagos told TheCable that the market had been experiencing massive gain against the greenback since last week.

Abubakar Salisu, a BDC trader, said they are now very reluctant to sell or buy at any certain rate except they get accurate confirmation from other operators.

“We sell today N540 per dollar. Last week, it was N565 to a dollar,” Salisu said.

In July, the apex bank accused BDC operators of working with corrupt people to conduct money laundering in Nigeria.

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the apex bank, had said CBN received about 5,000 applications every month for BDC registration, adding that the operators are making efforts to dollarise the Nigerian economy.

In September, the apex bank also went after Oniwinde Adedotun, the founder of abokiFX — a web platform that reports movements in the foreign exchange market since as early as 2014. 

It accused abokiFX Limited of conducting “illegal foreign exchange transactions” through its daily parallel market data information.

The move forced the management of AbokiFX to shut down the data information segment of its platform.

Speaking at the ongoing Paris Peace Forum on Wednesday, Emefiele said the country’s forex reserves above $40 billion can cater for investors’ repatriation of profit.

Since July that the apex bank stopped forex sales to BDCs, the nation’s foreign reserves climbed $8.49 billion from $33.3 billion to $41.8 billion.