Naira Falls Drastically At Black Market, See New Exchange Rate
Touchaheart reports that the checks on Aboki Forex on Wednesday revealed that the rate on the black market was set at N710 per dollar.
Touchaheart Nigeria reports that on Monday, the local currency exchanged hands for N670 to the US dollar. has decreased even more, as of Friday afternoon, according to data from Aboki Forex, down 6.7 percent in just two days.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) banned the sale of foreign currency to bureau de change operators a year prior to today’s record decline.
Due to their illicit sales of foreign exchange above the market, they were authorized to serve, the BDC operators’ purchase of foreign currency had previously been restricted by the central bank.
BDC operators were a significant part of the black market before the prohibition, helping people who couldn’t legally get foreign currencies directly from the CBN to maintain their exchange rates.
when CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele forbade selling foreign exchange to BDC. The currency rate was approximately N501 to $1.
CBN Governor Emiefule
However, the value of the naira fell to N670 to the dollar a year following the prohibition.
The top bank threatened to detain and prosecute Nigerians last week who were using naira to purchase dollars in an effort to further restrict the flow of foreign exchange at the parallel market.
“For those taking money from banks to buy dollars, it is illegal to do so. If the security agencies hold you, you will know the implication of that,” Mr. Emefiele said at a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Lagos.
However, Mr. Emefiele has been criticized for failing to initiate policies that will help stabilize the country’s currency value in the forex market.
Naira against the dollar at the Investors and Exporters window has decreased from N164 when Godwin Emefiele became governor of the central bank in March 2014 to N430 to a dollar on Wednesday.
In the parallel market, (black market) the Naira weakened from N180 to a dollar in 2014 to N710 on Wednesday.
