The foreign exchange pressure occasioned by scarcity of dollars worsened on Thursday as one dollar was being sold at N437 at some Bureau De Change (BDC) outlets in Lagos.
This represents a N12 depreciation of the Nigerian currency compared to N425 traded on Wednesday at the black market.
On March 26, 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) 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.
The price of dollar remained unchanged at N425 at the black market on Thursday. Operators attributed the high cost of dollar leading to weakness in Naira to scarcity of the greenback.
At the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, the foreign exchange market opened with an indicative rate of N385.61k on Thursday, data from FMDQ revealed.
This represents a depreciation of 0.14 percent or N0.54 kobo compared to N385.07k opened on the previous day.
The market closed on a positive note on Wednesday with Naira gaining N2.00k against the dollar at the I&E forex window.
The foreign exchange daily turnover rose by 154.22 percent to $53.21 million on Wednesday from $20.93 million as at Monday.
The CBN on March 2020 adjusted the exchange rate from N360 to N380/US$ at the I&E window, to stem the pressure in the foreign exchange market.
