Friday, March 29, 2024

Naira firms up against dollar at parallel market

The Naira hinges up against the dollar, despite last week’s raid and arrest of some licensed currency dealers, who were said to be selling foreign exchange above the prescribed limit.
The local currency, however, maintained strength over the dollar at the parallel segment of the market, although traders still traded at N455 to the dollar as it was previously.
According to traders at the market, activities were low last week, after the raid on the market by the operatives of the Department of State Service and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had instilled fear in them.
Recall that security operatives raided some unregistered BDCs and parallel market traders on Thursday, November 10, over alleged arbitrary sale of foreign currencies above the official rates.
The clampdown followed a meeting between the Central Bank of Nigeria, the SSS and leadership of the Bureau de Change association, aimed at finding solutions to the poor performance of the national currency against other international currencies, particularly the dollar, in the money market.
The CBN allows licensed BDC operators to buy dollars through Travelex at about N381 per dollar, and sell to retailers or end-users at about N385 per dollar.
On Friday, most black market traders were selling to their customers at between N385 and N400 to the dollar, as agreed at last weekend’s meeting, N555 to the pound sterling and N500 to the Euro.
Notably, the CBN guidelines stipulated that BDCs must not sell foreign exchange to end-users above 2 per cent margin of the buying rate. The apex bank also warned Nigerians in the Diaspora against patronising unlicensed money transfer operators.

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