Naira weakens to N950/dollar as forex scarcity worsens

The naira fell further to the dollar on Wednesday after closing at 950/$ at the parallel market.

Bureau de Change operators who spoke to The PUNCH, said the naira which had earlier closed at 930/$ at the close of operations on Tuesday, was bought and sold at 935/$ and 950/$ on Wednesday.

At the Investor & Exporter forex window, the naira closed at 758.12/$ on Wednesday, from 742.10 on Tuesday, according to figures obtained from the FMDQ, the official trading platform.

A BDC operator, Yusuf Kareem, who spoke to The PUNCH said, “We commenced trading at 930/$ in the morning and it closed at 950/$ in the evening. The naira has been scarce; we don’t know what is happening.”

Another BDC operator, Sanusi Ibrahim, said, the naira was bought and sold at 935/$ and 950/$ today. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow.”
The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria, recently, urged the Central Bank of Nigeria to grant Bureaux De Change operators digital autonomy to achieve exchange rate convergence.

In a statement, the President, ABCON Dr. Aminu Gwadabe, called on the apex bank to grant a no objection approval for the BDCs to fully go digital on all their operational correspondences.

He said the move would promote rate convergence, curb volatility in the market and promote economic growth.

ABCON had in the past, led its members to achieve rate convergence in 2006, 2009, 2018 to 2020 before the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, he said.

Granting digital autonomy to the operators, he noted, would lead to a true market rate discovery, enhance the achievement of the Federal Government harmonised foreign exchange rate policies, and promote effective monitoring of BDCs’ transactions for statutory and regulatory requirement.




Punch