Demand pressure pushes naira to N751 per dollar at parallel market

The Nigerian naira, on Thursday, weakened to N751 per dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market amid increased demand.

The figure represents N9 or 1.2 percent depreciation compared to the N742 it traded a week ago.

Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators, popularly known as ‘abokis’, who spoke to TheCable in Lagos, quoted the buying rate of the greenback at N745 and the selling price at N751 per dollar.

The traders said the FX scarcity intensified last week, explaining that business owners have been trooping to the market.

On the official market side, the naira depreciated by 0.06 percent to close at N441.50 to a dollar on Wednesday, according to data on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, a platform that oversees official foreign-exchange trading in Nigeria.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has consistently maintained that the parallel market represents less than one percent of FX transactions and should never be used to determine the country’s FX rate.

Recently, the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) said the “unorthodox” foreign exchange policy of the CBN impacted the naira stability across all markets and created a huge premium between official and parallel market rates.

“I am not a prophet of doom and student of continuing naira depreciation, but except fundamental goodwill and courage is demonstrated, the naira will continue to suffer loss in exchange for the greenbacks,” Aminu Gwadabe, ABCON president, had said.