Naira crashes to all-time record low as forex scarcity bites

Naira is currently exchanging at an all-time high amount against the US dollar as forex scarcity continues to bring more pain to travelers and importers.

According to operators in the black market, dollars exchanged for as high as N730 for buyers and N720 for those trying to sell on Monday morning.

The traders confirmed that there was a surge in dollar demand over the weekend and could worsen within the week.

Monday morning rates was a 2.24 percent loss in value for Naira when compared to N714 traders exchanging dollars on Friday.

With the current rate, the naira has depreciated by 29.20 percent from N565 per dollar at the beginning of the year.

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Nigeria’s currency has been on a free fall on the black market, but for Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), an unregulated market is “a tainted market in Nigeria, where people desire to deal in illegal foreign exchange (FX) transactions including sourcing of FX cash for purposes of offering bribes, corruption. That is where they deal.”

CBN also advised Nigerians to resist the urge to succumb to the speculative activities of some players in the foreign exchange market.

Meanwhile, at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, also known as the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Rate Fixing (NAFEX), and the official market, naira appreciated marginally by 0.04 per cent as the dollar was quoted at N436.33/$ on Friday as against N436.50/$ quoted the previous day.

On Friday, most currency dealers who participated in the foreign exchange auction maintained bids between N425.00 (low) and N438.00 (high) per dollar.

The data indicated that the daily foreign exchange market turnover increased marginally by 4.29 per cent to $106.11 million on Friday from $101.74 million recorded on Thursday.