Nigerians Buy Dollar at N570 on Lagos Streets

By Adedapo Adesanya

Almost a week after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced that Nigerians in need of foreign exchange (forex) should no longer patronise the parallel market or the Bureaux De Change (BDC) segment as it has scrapped them, the value of the Naira to the Dollar at those windows has continued to worsen.

Findings by Business Post showed that on the streets of Lagos, FX users now pay about N570 to obtain an American Dollar, while the forex traders buy the Dollar from customers at N563.

For the Pound Sterling, customers paid N770/£1, while the Euro went for N670/€1.

Last Friday, the CBN accused an online platform, AbokiFX, of manipulating the exchange rate because it publishes rates of the Naira against the other foreign currencies. It then vowed to prosecute the owner and possibly shut down the website.

Hours later, AbokiFX issued a statement, denying the allegations and then suspended updates of rates on the platform pending when it gets clarification on the issue.

Meanwhile, the Naira maintained its strong performance against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window yesterday as it appreciated by 10 kobo or 0.02 per cent to N413.18/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N413.28/$1.

This happened despite a 14.5 per cent or $29.07 million increase in the day’s turnover to $229.72 million from $200.65 million recorded the day before.

At the interbank market, the local currency remained flat at N410.60/$1, according to data obtained from the CBN website.

At the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies started recovery after a shaky start to the week due to fears that property company Evergrande’s troubles could lead to fallout for the Chinese and global economies prompted a selloff in riskier assets.

Bitcoin (BTC) jumped by 8.7 per cent to trade at N24,999,907.99, Ethereum (ETH) made a 12.9 per cent appreciation to sell at N1,789, 999.99, while Ripple (XRP) made a 7.6 per cent rise to trade at N549.99.

Also, Dash (DASH) grew by 10.9 per cent to sell at N102,276.00, Litecoin (LTC) appreciated by 4.9 to close at N92,050.00, Tron (TRX) went up by 2.5 per cent to sell for N54.62, while the United States Dollar Tether (USDT) rose by 0.4 per cent to sell at N570.51.

Furthermore, Dogecoin (DOGE) recorded a 1.5 per cent gain to trade at N135.48, Cardano (ADA) moved higher by 1.4 per cent to N1,336.65, while Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 0.5 per cent to sell at N154,424.11.