As Nigerians anxiously look to the newest direction of the local currency, the naira on Monday gained N10 exchanging at N470/$ compared to N480/$ it traded in the previous week on the black market.
Traders told BusinessDay that currency hoarders are now bringing out their dollars as the news of CBN’s dollar sales next week spread.
The Naira appreciation followed the plan by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to resume dollar sales to the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators next week.
The CBN on Thursday August 27 informed the general public that gradual sales of foreign exchange (FX) to licensed BDC operators will commence with effect from September 7, 2010.
The local currency also signalled appreciation by N0.43k as the foreign exchange market opened with an indicative rate of N386.50k on Monday from N386.93k opened with on Friday last week at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, data from FMDQ showed.
At the I&E FX window, relatively lower volume passed through the market, due to tightened system liquidity. Naira appreciated marginally by 0.02 percent as the dollar was quoted at N385.67 on Friday as against the last close of N385.75 per dollar. Analysts at FSDH said most participants maintained bids between N380.00 and N393.05 per dollar.
Naira also firmed against the dollar at the retail bureau where it was trading at N470, representing a gain of N8.00k when compared with N478 traded last week.
The Apex bank on March 26, suspended foreign exchange sales to the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators until further notice due to the Covid-19 lockdown as requested by the operators. The suspension notwithstanding, some BDCs are still active in the market.
