The naira recovered against the US dollar on the parallel market, closing at 850/dollar on Wednesday.
A planned intervention in the foreign exchange market by the Central Bank of Nigeria was disclosed two days prior to this.
On Monday, the naira was exchanged at 950 to the dollar in the black market. On Tuesday, it increased even more and ended the day at 915/dollars.
A Bureau de Change employee, Alh Taofeek Ahmed, stated in an interview on Wednesday, “We bought and sold the naira at 830/$ and 850/$ today. Compared to last week, there was less demand.
A different BDC employee at the Lagos airport, Alhaji Mustapha Umar, claimed that the exchange rate for the dollar was 850 to 1 and 835 to 1.
A BDC operator in the Abuja CBD, Aminu Zakari, claimed to have bought and sold dollars for 860 and 845 respectively.
He claimed that after the CBN’s statement, there has been confusion in the parallel market segment.
Operators, he claimed, were looking forward to the central bank’s impending action.
Trading started at N781.66/$ at the Investor & Exporter forex window and reached a high of N799,90/$ before ending at N759,86/$ on Wednesday; it ended at N781,30/$ on Tuesday.
Acting CBN Governor Folashodun Shonubi said the bank was planning to take further measures to stabilize the naira on Monday after updating President Bola Tinubu on what the bank was doing to stop the currency slide at the State House in Abuja.
He gave Nigerians the reassurance that the CBN was striving to increase liquidity, establish market stability, and address problems in the parallel market.
He said that speculative demand was also a major driver of the oscillations in the parallel market in addition to economic causes.
Following the CBN’s pronouncement on Monday, a top official of an investment bank claimed that traders grew more cautious.
“Numerous Nigerians living abroad are buying Eurobonds. However, those who earn money in dollars today prefer to save it in dollars rather than convert it to naira. To encourage more individuals to invest in dollars, numerous Nigerian corporations are releasing dollar-denominated bonds, according to an analyst at a financial firm who chose to maintain his anonymity.”
The Nigerian National Petroleum Limited obtained a $3bn emergency loan on Wednesday to help stabilize the naira.
