Naira slides to N683/$ at parallel market as FX demand intensifies
Naira has dropped to N683 per dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market, popularly called the black market.
The figure represents a depreciation of N3 or 0.4 per cent from the N680 it traded last week.
Bureaux De Change operators said there was still FX scarcity in the market.
They put the buying price of the dollar at N678 and the selling price at N683, leaving a N5 profit margin.
“Demand is still high, but we don’t have enough dollars,” a currency trader said.
Last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stopped FX allocation to BDC operators.
CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, said the black market traders turned away from their objectives of becoming money laundering agent.
The apex bank later inaugurated deposit money banks to cover the expected demand from the public.
The CBN has also maintained that the parallel market represented less than one per cent of FX transactions and should never be used to determine Nigeria’s naira/dollar exchange rate.
At the official market, the naira depreciated by 0.09 per cent to close at N430 on Monday, according to details on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange – a platform that oversees official foreign-exchange trading in Nigeria.
To halt the downward spiral of the naira against the dollar, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) clamped down on FX hoarders and BDC operators allegedly mopping up foreign currencies.
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