Updated: Concern mounts as naira falls to ₦550 per dollar

The naira has continued its free fall against the United States dollar and other major currencies as it traded between N540 and N550 to one dollar at the parallel market on Thursday.

The drop comes about a week after it was sold at N530 against the American currency.

The British pound was trading at N740 across in the same market on Thursday, it was learnt.

Finance experts and bureau de change operators are worried over the situation. Indeed the BDC operators are speculating that the downward trend will likely continue and that the rise hit N100 per dollar by the end of the year.

The exchange rate has been on a downward slope after the suspension of foreign exchange transactions with the BDC operators by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The CBN in July placed a ban on foreign exchange sales to the BDC operators, with an indefinite suspension issuance of licences to money changers.

The bank then instructed commercial banks to set up teller points in branches, so that dollars and other foreign currencies would be made available to Nigerians.

The Chairman of the BDC operators at the Lagos airport, Mr Danladi Sunday, blamed the CBN for the development.

He said while the CBN had directed commercial banks to sell dollars, the banks only sold to those he called cabals.

“The stoppage of dollars to bureau de change is the cause of this problem. The CBN said they would be giving to commercial banks and the commercial banks are not selling to everybody, they are only selling to their cabals,” he told Daily Trust in an interview.

“And once the demand is higher and supply is lower, definitely, the money is going to be high. The solution now is for the CBN to call us back. Once they call us back, the money would come down,” he added.

When President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in May 2015, the naira was trading at about N187 to a dollar.

The administration has faced backlash for its handling of the country’s fiscal and monetary policies.

Officials however dismissed the criticisms, saying the government came on board at a time of perilous economic situation that stemmed from decades of mismanagement by previous administrations.