Fakoyejo OlalekanThe naira continued its free fall on November 8 in the official market of the Investors & Exporters window after the dollar appreciated by 0.03 per cent.
According to FMDQ’s exchange rate data for the official market, the naira exchanged for the dollar at N446/$1 on Thursday, rising from the N445.83/$1 both currencies exchanged for on Wednesday.
The exchange rate between the dollar and the naira had risen as high as N452, as down to a low of N439.98, before settling with N446.
Prime Business Africa had gathered that traders exchanged forex worth $231.20 million on Thursday. The value of forex traded is more than the $127.78 million exchanged on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in the black market, the dollar held on to its premium rate, maintaining N300 gap against the exchange rate in the official market. The dollar was sold at N760.
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The naira’s depreciation in the exchange rate on Thursday was on the back of the central bank insisting on reducing the naira notes in circulation.
CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, had stated that there’s no going back on the reduction of withdrawal over-the-counter, at the Auto Teller Machines, and Points of Sale (PoS).
Emefiele had stated that, “We cannot continue to allow a situation where over 85 percent of the cash that is in circulation is outside the bank. More and more countries that are embracing digitisation have gone cashless.”
Although he confirmed that the withdrawal policy will be reviewed, but cautioned it doesn’t mean “that we will reverse, it is not to say that we will change the timing, but whether it is about tricking (sic) some amount to be a little bit higher or a little bit lower, and all the rest of them.
“We will do so because we are humans, we want to make sure that we are making life good for our people. We do not want to make life difficult for them.”
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