Panic in financial sector, others over depreciating naira at N1,500/$

Panic in financial sector, others over depreciating naira at N1,500/$

The depreciating value of Nigeria’s currency, the naira, is causing panic among businesspeople and others in the finance sector.
Naira went over N1,500 mark to one US dollar on Sunday on the parallel market.

Ibrahim Dollar as one of the BDC operators in Lagos is called told Newstrends Sunday morning that there appeared to be a mop-up of the dollars.

He said, “As of today, we sell one dollar at N1,500 and buy at N1,460.

“In the last one month, we get more people buying the dollars than those exchanging dollars for naira.”
The N500/$ rate is about N34 loss compared to 1,466 that the naira exchanged for a US dollar on Friday.
The naira lost N40 between Thursday and Friday when it closed at N1,426 to a dollar, according to the National Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), the official exchange market.
Surprisingly, the naira had about a month ago firmed up against the dollar, exchanging below N1,000.

The continued fall in naira has fuelled the fears that prices of goods including food items may further rise and worsen the current high cost of living.

Nigeria’s inflation rate jumped to 33.20% in March 2024 from 31.70% in February when naira recorded some gain
This was after a number of reforms and interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) including supply of dollars to the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators.
But with increasing demand for the US dollars, the earlier gain has been retarded.
A report by Bloomberg last week rated the naira as the worst performing current in the world in the last one month.
This was after the CBN had disclosed that the naira came as the best performing currency.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) last week announced that henceforth transactions at the foreign embassies in Nigeria would be conducted in naira and no longer in dollars, just to shore up the value of the nation’s currency.