Naira gains in the parallel market against the US Dollar
In the last two days the Nigerian Naira made significant gains against the US Dollar in the parallel forex market.
Trading at N472/$ as at Friday September 28, the Naira traded at N455/$ on Monday and by Tuesday made further gains first to N430/$ and by close of business is traded at N410/$
Investigations by BusinessTrumpet News revealed that the gains are as a result of speculations that the CBN will commence Dollar sales to BDCs by next week and subsequently, those that have hoarded the Dollar for the past five months have no choice but to start offloading their holdings.
A source at the CBN confirmed that the Naira gain is also part of the CBN’s Governor’s drive to drive down the Dollar value of the Naira and eventually merge the official and parallel market rates.
Recently, the CBN issued a circular to BDCs to sell USD to end users at the maximum price of N386/$; they buy from the CBN at N384/$
And just last week, the CBN went tough on exporters who failed to repatriate their foreign currency proceeds to the country and directed all banks to compiled and foward names of such defaulting and recalcitrant exporters.
All these measures are pulling forces to enable the Naira gain and appreciate against the Dollar in the parallel market. These gains are expected to continue if the CBN pumps in enough USD to meet demand as our investigations also revealed that there is a backlog of about $5 billion USD commitments waiting to be met.
The official Naira rate exchange from the CBN as at September 01, 2020 is N379/$
The high value of the US Dollar vis a vis the Naira has negatively affected most imported goods and worsened the inflation rate in the country. Things like Cars, electronics, phones, etc., rose sharply in prices since April. Most traders in the market interviewed by Businesstrumpet are happy with the development on the Naira exchange rate and pray for its sustenance so that prices of things like cars will crash to the level of the common man.
