Naira Trades at N715/$1 in Lagos Parallel Market

By Dipo Olowookere

The Naira traded against the Dollar at the black market in Lagos on Thursday at N715/$1 compared with the N705/$1 it was transacted on Wednesday.

One of the Business Post reporters bought the American currency at the Olugbede Model Market, Egbeda, at the rate this morning and the reason given for the exchange rate is the scarcity of the Dollar in the parallel market segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market.

“There is not enough Dollar in circulation at the moment and those who have it are selling in bits and prefer to sell to customers who want higher volume as the rate would be higher,” one of the forex traders identified as Alhaji Isa said.

“We are keeping the Dollar to sell at N750 later. We know it would reach this amount very soon,” another seller, Abdulahi Musa, told this reporter in a chat.

It was observed that the Naira to Dollar exchange rate is feeling the impact of speculators and FX users are suffering from this.

On Wednesday, the Senate moved to stop this and directed the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, to take quick action to save the local currency.

About a year ago, the central bank stopped the supply of forex to Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators in the country, accusing them of using their platforms to fund terrorism.

A few months later, Mr Emefiele accused an online platform publishing FX rates, AbokiFX, of manipulating exchange rates to weaken the value of the Naira.

The platform was forced to stop publishing the rates but the Naira is yet to get a cure as forex supply to the market has continued to drop, causing traders to ration what they have.

Yesterday, one of the Senators, Mrs Biodun Olujimi, blamed the central bank for the FX crisis in the country, submitting that, “Most of what is happening are because people are taking out the dollar and selling and bringing them back in — we should be penalising somebody for what has happened to the naira-dollar rate.

“The time has come for us to look holistically into what is happening. What is happening to the dollar is a replica of what is happening to Nigeria.”