In 5 Days, I&E FX Turnover Jumps 0.5% to $681m

By Sodeinde Temidayo David

Last week, the total value of transactions recorded at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (FX) market in Nigeria increased by 0.5 per cent or $3.6 million.

According to the data tracked during the week by Business Post from the FMDQ Securities Exchange between August, Monday 9 and Friday 13, the weekly I&E FX turnover was $681 million compared with the preceding week’s $677.4 million.

Analysis showed that investors are beginning to have confidence in the measures put in place by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ensure that genuine forex requests are met.

The apex bank had last month stopped the FX sales to Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators and diverted the weekly sale initially meant for the BDCs to commercial banks.

Though some investors, especially those in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector have kicked against this, others are gradually embracing the policy for now with the hope that supply to the market is sustained by the central bank.

A breakdown of how the trades were recorded in the 5-day trading week showed that at the opening session of last week, the turnover was $166.06 million and the next day, it dropped to $122.5 million and at the midweek session, it jumped to $132.42 million and further rose to $150.99 million on Thursday before contracting to $109.03 million on Friday.

A look at the performance of the Naira showed that the value compared with the Dollar appreciated week-on-week by 0.2 per cent or 70 kobo to N410.80/$1 from N411.50/$1 it ended at the preceding week.

Last Monday, the Naira traded flat at the I&E at N411.50/$1 and on Tuesday, it depreciated to N411.60/$1 and the next day, it appreciated to N411.40/$1 and depreciated to N411.67/$1 and strengthened to N410.80/$1 on Friday.

At the parallel market, the domestic currency depreciated against the greenback by 0.98 per cent or N5 to settle for the week at N515/$1 compared with N510/$1 it traded a week earlier and at the interbank window, the local currency closed flat at N410.11/$1.