Fakoyejo Olalekan
The exchange rate depreciated in the Bureau De Change window of the black market on Wednesday, 1, February 2023, after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) confirmed banks will continue to receive old Naira after the phase-out deadline.
Naira appreciated by 0.80 per cent against the United States Dollar (USD), as the asking price in the parallel market for $1 fell by N6.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelBureau De Change window offered the one Dollar at N745, slightly below the N751 that a Dollar went for during trading the previous day.
Recall that the central bank had stated that the Naira will cease to be legal tender on 31, January 2023, after releasing redesigned Naira notes in December 2022.
However, the deadline was pushed forward to 10, February 2023. Despite the extension, there has been fear that the banks might also stop accepting the old Naira.
This has compelled persons hoarding the old Naira to dump it, and those in illicit businesses have been running to the black market to exchange the Nigerian banknotes for Dollars.
As a result, many Naira notes are chasing a few Dollars, raising the value of the United States currency up, while dragging the value of the local currency down.
But with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, stating that the CBN Act mandates banks to continue to accept the Naira after it stops being legal tender, panic disposal of the Nigerian banknotes has eased.
In the official market, the Naira closed at N461.50 kobo/$1 on Tuesday, 31, January 2023. Note that the exchange rate between both currencies was also N461.50 kobo during the previous trading day.
The exchange rate traded flat on decline in supply, as traders in the Investors and Exporters (IE) window of the official market traded $85.04 million worth of forex.
Prime Business Africa gathered that the forex transactions were 36.4 per cent or $65.45 million below the $150.49 million traded on Monday, 30, January 2023.
