Business

Naira maintains rate against Dollar

Published

9 years ago

March 16, 2018

The Nigerian Naira on Thursday, March 15, maintained its rate against the U.S. Dollar which it traded at as at Wednesday, March 14. The local currency maintained the rate N363 per US dollar at the parallel market.

The Nigerian currency trades at N363, N502 and N444 against the Dollar, Pound Sterling and Euro respectively.

Recall that the Naira, Wednesday, appreciated marginally by 2 kobo to N360.25 per dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market.

Data from the Financial Market Dealers Quote (FMDQ) showed that the indicative exchange rate for the I&E also known as Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange, NAFEX, dropped further to N360.25 per dollar, yesterday, from N360.28 per dollar on Tuesday, indicating 2 kobo appreciation in the naira.

However, the volume of dollars traded in the window further declined by 60 percent to $128.06 million yesterday from $322.83 million on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued the regulation for direct debit schemes in the country.

The regulation recognizes the existing and emerging multichannel options (online platforms, instant payments,etc.) applied for direct debit instructions in Nigeria.

In the guidelines posted on its website on Wednesday, March 14, the CBN explained that the provisions of the regulation were harmonised with developments in the payments system since the release of the previous version. Direct debit is a cash-less form of financial settlement which facilitates recurring payments.

It permits the originator of the instruction, known as ‘biller’ to collect amounts due from a payer through the Payer’s bank by leveraging an instruction or mandate provided by the payer.