Forex turnover improved significantly by 536.7% as Nigeria’s exchange rate at the NAFEX window maintained its stability against the dollar to close at N386/$1 during intra-day trading on Thursday, November 5.
Also, the naira depreciated further against the dollar, closing at N465/$1 at the parallel market on Thursday, November 5, 2020, as BDCs get another round of dollar supply from CBN.
This is also as businesses that were shut down due to the outbreak of violence in Lagos and some parts of the country during the protests against the special anti-robbery unit (SARS) and police brutality by the Nigerian youths get back to full activity.
Parallel market: According to information from Abokifx – a prominent FX tracking website, at the black market where forex is traded unofficially, the Naira depreciated against the dollar to close at N465/$1 on Thursday. This represents a N1 drop when compared to the N464/$1 that it exchanged for on Wednesday, November 4.
- The local currency had strengthened by about 7.8% within the one week in September at the black market, as the CBN introduced some measures targeted at exporters and importers, in order to try to boost the supply of dollars in the foreign exchange market, and reduce the high demand for forex by traders.
- The CBN has sold over $500 million to BDCs since they resumed forex sales on Monday, September 7, 2020. This was expected to inject more liquidity to the retail end of the foreign exchange market and discourage hoarding and speculation.
- However, the exchange rate against the dollar has remained volatile after the initial gains made, following the CBN’s resumption of sales of dollars to the BDCs.
- The President of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators, Aminu Gwadebe, said he expects the impact of the extra liquidity in the market to be gradual.
- Despite the drop in speculative buying of foreign exchange, the huge demand backlog by manufacturers and foreign investors still puts pressure and creates a volatile situation in the foreign exchange market.
NAFEX: The Naira remained stable against the dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window on Thursday, closing at N386/$1.
