Naira Trades N412.88/$1 as CBN Roars at Illegal FX Traders

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira appreciated against the greenback on Friday at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it no longer recognises the exchange rates quoted at the black market and the Bureaux De Change (BDCs), threatening to eliminate the activities of illegal FX traders.

At the specialised forex window, the local currency gained 19 kobo or 0.05 per cent against the US Dollar to trade at N412.88/$1 compared to N413.07/$1 it was traded on Thursday.

The domestic currency gained strength yesterday despite a significant rise in the demand for FX at the market segment, according to data on the FMDQ Securities Exchange.

Business Post gathered that transactions valued at $229.79 million were carried out at the I&E window on Friday in contrast to the $126.96 million reported at the preceding session, indicating an 80.9 per cent or $102.83 million leap.

The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, after a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting yesterday in Abuja, emphasized that the bank does not recognize the parallel market rates.

He added that the country’s national lender was the only in the world that takes FX in the country’s reserve to sell to Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators in an effort to stabilise the rates.

The CBN chief noted that this would now become a thing of the past, just as the bank intensifies efforts to shut down the operations of Aboki FX, an exchange rates aggregator website.

At the interbank window of the forex market yesterday, the local currency closed flat at N410.57/$1.

Meanwhile, at the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) snagged by 0.8 per cent to trade at N26,765,554.36 as Tron (TRX) traded lower by 5.7 per cent to N62.85, with Litecoin (LTC) losing 3.8 per cent to sell at N103,600.02.

Further, Ripple (XRP) went down by 3.5 per cent to N614.49, Dash (DASH) also fell by 3.5 per cent to trade at N116,208.10, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 3.3 per cent to N1,462.37, Ethereum (ETH) dropped 1.2 per cent to close at N1,919,995.28, while Dogecoin (DOGE) lost 0.8 per cent to close at N145.8.

During the session, Binance Coin (BNB) closed flat at N152,000, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) appreciated by 1.2 per cent as it sold for N578.99.