Naira trades at N285/dollar

The naira on Tuesday depreciated by 2.51 per cent to exchange at N285 to the dollar at the Bureau De Change (BDCs) segment of the foreign exchange market.

The Nigerian currency traded at N278 on Monday.

Harrison Owoh, a currency trader, said the further depreciation of the naira was as a result of the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN’s) announcement to stop the sale of foreign exchange to BDCs.

Owoh, managing director of HJ Trust Investment Ltd., said CBN was yet to issue circular informing BDCs on the latest development, adding that they got the information from the pages of newspapers.

According to him, by CBN allowing dollar deposits into domiciliary accounts by Nigerians means the banks would now have more foreign exchange at their disposal.

He said the announcement that the BDCs should source for foreign exchange from the autonomous market needed to be defined by the CBN.

This, he said, would enable them to know whether BDCs would now have access to banks to source for foreign exchange.

Owoh said the naira started falling when the CBN banned banks from selling to BDCs.

“The recent development means there will mass retrenchment in the industry,” he said.

“The CBN needs to define the autonomous market because we still need more clarification on this.”

Owoh said there was the tendency for the naira to continue to fall as the announcement had already resulted into scarcity of dollar in the market.

He said there had been clamour in some quarters that the naira be further devalued, adding that this could adversely affect the market.

Owoh said he was optimistic that the policy would be reversed soon by the CBN.