By Ishaya Ibrahim
The Naira gained significantly against the United States Dollar on Wednesday at the parallel section of the foreign exchange market.
Recall that shortly after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the change of new N200, N500 and N1000 notes, the dollar exchanged for N900 at the black market as many speculators and those who have stashed Naira notes hurriedly moved to convert them to dollars and other foreign currencies.
According to a report by The Cable, Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators say the naira now trades at N825 to a dollar.
The figure represents a gain of N60 or 6.8 percent compared to the N885 it traded on Monday.
According to the report, the traders put the buying price of the dollar at N790 and the selling price at N825, leaving a profit margin of N35.
“Dollar is coming down. It may go down to N800 soon. There is plenty of dollars in the market now for people to buy,” the newspaper quoted a BDC operator in the Victoria Island area of Lagos.
Since the suspension of trading information by abokiFX, citizens have resorted to street traders for the current market rates of the local currency.
But the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has consistently maintained that the parallel market represents less than one percent of foreign exchange (FX) transactions and should never be used to determine the naira’s value.
On the official market side, the local currency depreciated by 0.13 percent to close at N446.10 on Tuesday, according to details on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange — a platform that oversees official foreign-exchange trading in Nigeria.
An exchange rate of N460 to the dollar was the highest rate recorded within the day’s trading before it settled at N446.10.
It sold for as low as N440 to the dollar within the day’s trading. A total of $72.69 million was traded in foreign exchange at the official investors and exporters window (I&E).