Naira totters at black market, exchanges for N922.65/$1

Naira begins the new week on a shaky ground as the exchange rate with the United States Dollar closed at N922.65/$1 on Friday, compared to the N912.5/$1 offered the day before.

Similarly, the value of the pound rose in the parallel market to N1168.9/£1 according to Naira Rates. It was learnt that the price of the British currency appreciated by N15.4 kobo from N1153.5/£1.

Also, the average price of the euro increased by N10.8 kobo in the black market, rising from N990.9/€1 to N1001.7/€1 during trading on Friday.

Meanwhile, the exchange rate between the Naira and the United States Dollar (USD) closed at N736.62/$1 on Friday in the Investors’ and Exporters’ window, indicating stability in the official market.

Recall that the naira exchanged for the dollar at a rate of N736.62/$1 on Thursday according to the official market aggregator, FMDQ Exchange.

READ ALSO: Naira appreciates at both parallel, official markets

A broader look showed that the exchange rate also went as high as N799.90 per dollar and traded at a low of N715.80/$1 during trading on Friday.

At the end of trading, foreign exchange report obtained from FMDQ Exchange showed that authorised dealers and their clients transacted $153.55 million worth of forex.

This is a significant increase of $87.12 million or 131.14 per cent when compared to the $66.43 million in foreign exchange transactions recorded the preceding day.

Meanwhile, the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to give BDCs autonomy to go digital.

This is in line with the CBN’s tech reforms for BDCs for rate convergence and ABCON’s various digitization reforms for Bureau de Change operators from 2016 to date.

In a statement, ABCON noted that the exchange rate volatility has continued to give rise to the slow economic growth of Nigeria recently.

READ ALSO: Binance operations, other factors putting pressure on Naira –ABCON

ABCON called on the CBN to diversify the scope of operation and business model of the BDC operators from a base to less cash and digital platforms.

‘’There is no doubt that exchange rate volatility has continued to underpin the slow economic growth of Nigeria in the past years.

As a proactive Organisation and an umbrella body of central bank licensed BDCs and In Line with the recent CBN plan reforms on BDCs to be tech savvy and Abcon’s BDCs’ various digitization reforms since 2016 to date, we urge the CBN to democratise and centralise the BDCs operational mechanism by allowing BDCs the autonomy to go digital.

‘’Given the above we called on the CBN to diversify our scope of operation and business model from cash base to less cash and digital platforms.