Naira hits N665 per dollar as demand intensifies

Naira, Nigeria’s currency may reach N700 per dollar by the end of the week as demand for US currency by Nigerians is rising uncontrollably.

After trading on Monday, naira closed at N665 per dollar, which represents a 1.65 percent drop compared to N654/$ it closed on Friday at the parallel market popularly called black market.

Read also: CBN struggles to help Naira as it continues poor performance against US dollar

Traders said a lot of people were buying and keeping the dollars for future use, especially those whose children were schooling abroad.

Naira has been depreciating at the parallel market following shortage in foreign exchange supply at the official market, amid rising external reserves.

Nigeria’s external reserves increased by 2.17 percent to $39.44 billion as of July 18, 2022, from $38.60 billion recorded in May 2022, data from the CBN showed.

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had at last Tuesday’s post-Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting briefing, warned bank customers against converting the naira to foreign exchange, for electioneering purposes.

The CBN also frowned at the conduct of unauthorized movement of funds within and outside the country and would use tools at its disposal to check the movement of illicit funds.

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