Naira continues free fall

Black market traders appear to have struck gold in recent days, taking advantage of the low liquidity on the foreign currency market as well as Nigerians seeking quick access.

Since the Central Bank of Nigeria imposed stringent regulations on the FX market, black market dealers have had to grow more creative in order to get dollars from the official market or in other ways and they haven’t held back in exploiting any potential gaps. And Thursday was one of those days.

According to Abokifx data, Nigerians seeking easy access to the dollars were forced to pay N540/$1. This was a N5 increase, or 0.94 percent, over the N535.00 paid on Wednesday.

In fact, a check by Ripples Nigeria showed that in some parts of Lagos traders sold the dollar at N550.

The currency crisis also had an impact on the Naira’s value to the British Pound Sterling and the Euro.

Again Abokifx data, showed that the Naira lost N10 against the pound to sell for N740/£1 compared to the N730/£1 the previous day.

Read also: Naira inches close to N550/$1, exchanges at N730/£1

Against the euro Naira lost N3 value to exchanged at N632/€1 from the N629/€1 it traded on Wednesday.

It was not a different case at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window the official foreign exchange market.

According to data from FMDQ securities, the domestic currency declined by 17 kobo or 0.04 percent against the U.S currency to sell for N411.67/$1 compared with N411.50/$1 it traded on Wednesday.

During the trading, market participants bid between N400 and N412.85 for a dollar before settling at N411.67.

Forex supply decreased by 61.20 percent with $114.68 million recorded at the market session against the $295.39 million posted in the previous session on Wednesday.

With the Black market rate at N540 and the official market at N411.67 on Thursday the difference between the market rates for the dollars is now at N128.33.

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