The naira has dropped to N522 to a dollar at the parallel
market as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) discontinued the sale of foreign
exchange (FX) to Bureaux De Change (BDCs) operators in the country.
The local currency, which opened today’s trading at N505/$1,
lost N17 or about 3.4 percent in midday trading, according to data on
abokiFX.com, a website that collates parallel rates in Lagos.
At the importer & exporter (I&E) window, it traded
moderately to close at N411.50 per dollar.
On Tuesday, Godwin Emefiele, governor of CBN, announced the
discontinuation of forex sales to BDCs.
The CBN governor said BDC operators have become agents of
money laundering in Nigeria.
He said the CBN would channel weekly allocations of dollar
sales to commercial banks to meet legitimate FX demands and mandated banks to
sell forex to every customer who meets requirements.
But a top insider at CBN told TheCable that the apex bank
may be unable to meet requests of banks to serve all customers as mandated.
The source added that the apex bank allocates about $20,000
weekly to each BDC operator in the country – amounting to $5.72 billion yearly
to the parallel market.
“Commercial banks come with bids of $1.3 billion
fortnightly, and CBN cannot provide more than $250 million,” the source had
said.
The latest development is also coming amid plunging external
reserves and diaspora remittances.
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