Naira Crashes Further, Now Exchanges for N460 Per Dollar

The move by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to resume the sales of Forex to Bureau de Change operators in the country did not stop the naira from bleeding as it further crashed yesterday.

The naira exchanged for the dollar at N460 in the parallel market on Tuesday, Sept. 15.

After the CBN announced the resumption of forex sales last week, the naira dropped from N480/$ to N440/$ as of last Thursday.

On Sept. 7, the CBN sold $51 million to 5,180 Bureau de Change operators.

Speaking on the naira decline on Tuesday, during the virtual 13th annual Banking & Finance Conference, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele said the drop in crude oil earnings and in foreign portfolio inflows affected the supply of foreign exchange into Nigeria.

Emefiele said,“In order to adjust for the decrease in supply of foreign exchange, the naira depreciated at the official window from N305/$ to N360/$ and to N380/$.

“These adjustments along with increased efforts to restrict undue speculative activities, has led to a growing unification of rates across all the forex market segments.

“In addition, the band between the parallel market and the official exchange rate over the past month, has narrowed recently due to some of the measures taken by the CBN to curb illegal forex transactions”.

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He added that the CBN is continuing the implementation of demand management framework to improve the production of made-in-Nigeria items. Emefiele said this will further conserve Nigeria’s external reserves.

It is believed that this measure will cushion the effect of the decline of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and subsequent adjustments in the value of the naira against the US dollar.