By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Nigerian currency, Naira weakened further on Thursday on the parallel market against the Dollar, closing at N493.
The previous day, it had closed at N490 to the Dollar, but according to traders, the Naira is still facing issues at the foreign exchange market because the liquidity challenge was far from being resolved by the government.
This, it was learnt, made the country’s local currency to experience a bad outing yesterday against all three major currencies.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Naira exchanged for N595 and N506 to the Pound Sterling and the Euro respectively.
At the Bureau De Change (BDC) window, the Naira traded at N399 to a Dollar, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) controlled rate, while Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N598 and N510 respectively.
The Naira, however, remained stable at the interbank window as it exchanged for N305 to a Dollar.
Commenting, President of Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Mr Aminu Gwadabe, while decrying the spike in the exchange rate, commended the CBN for keeping it below N500 to a Dollar.
Mr Gwadabe said that the task of keeping the dollar below N500 and controlling the inflation rate was enormous, adding that the apex bank was doing its best.
The ABCON chief said that people who speculated or forecast on the continued depreciation of the Naira were doing so for their personal reasons.
NAN reports that the previous forecasts in 2016 on the ability of Diaspora remittances to cushion the pressures on the Naira did not materialise during the Yuletide.
