Naira Crashes to N1,820/$1 at Black Market as EFCC Goes After FX Traders

By Dipo Olowookere

The decision of the government to go after foreign exchange (FX) traders on the streets seems to have backfired as it has badly affected the value of the Naira to the Dollar in the currency market, particularly at the parallel market end of it.

Data gathered by Business Post showed that the Nigerian Naira is being exchanged with the US Dollar in the black market at N1,820/$1 at the time of filing this report on Tuesday compared with N1,720/$1 it was traded on Monday, indicating a decline of N100.

Yesterday, some operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) reportedly went after some forex traders in Abuja. This situation created tension in the market.

“We heard of the attacks on our colleagues in Abuja on Monday by the EFCC. They quickly informed us [in Lagos] to be very careful and be discreet in our operations,” one of the FX traders in Lagos, Mr Sani Abubakar, informed this newspaper on Tuesday.

Mr Abubakar said yesterday’s attack triggered forex hoarding today, causing a few traders selling the hard currency to hike the rate.

“I am sure you know a similar thing happened during the last government (of President Muhammadu Buhari), where the former CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) Governor (Mr Godwin Emefiele) unleashed the DSS (Department of State Services) on us, the Naira suffered for it.

“I don’t know why this government (of President Bola Tinubu) is adopting the same strategy that has not yielded any meaningful result in the past,” the FX trader said.

This newspaper observed that the supply of forex into the official channel, the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), has significantly reduced in the past few days.

This is affecting the local currency as customers have to approach the parallel market whenever their demands are not met in the spot market.

On Monday, the domestic currency lost 3.9 per cent or N60.58 against the greenback in the official market to trade at N1,598.54/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,537.96/$1, according to data obtained from FMDQ Securities Exchange.