Fakoyejo OlalekanThe dollar rate was in opposite directions at the black and official markets on Friday, as the currencies continued to react to the emergence of new naira notes.
In the parallel market, which is unsupported by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the naira strengthened against the United States’ currency by 0.2 per cent.
The dollar exchanged for N775/$1 on November 25, depreciating in value by N2, as opposed to the N777/$1 the USD was sold at the Bureau De Change quarters on Thursday.
While the dollar declined in the parallel market at the close of trading last week, it was on the rise in the central bank-backed official exchange market.
According to trading report released by FMDQ for Friday’s activities, less forex amounting to $117.26 million exchanged hands and below previous day’s $145.89 million was traded.
This means that value of transaction fell by 19.6 per cent or $28.63 million, as traders sold the dollar for N446.33/$1, with the American greenback rising by 0.3 per cent or N1.33 kobo in value.
It was learnt that on Thursday, the dollar rate rose after closing at N445/$1 at the official market of the Investors and Exporters window.
Meanwhile, the central bank blames the inability of the naira to hold its own against the dollar on growing dollar requests for school fees abroad as well as for international travels by Nigerians, confirming that more and more Nigerians are leaving the country and mounting pressure on the naira.
CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele said: “The number of student visas issued to Nigerians by the United Kingdom alone has increased from an annual average of about 8,000 visas as of 2020 to nearly 66,000 in 2022, which implies an eight-fold surge to about $2.5 billion annually in study-related foreign exchange outflow to the UK alone.
“It is against the backdrop of the worsening mismatch between foreign exchange market demand and supply, and the need to boost foreign exchange earnings that the CBN and the Bankers’ Committee initiated the RT200 programme in February 2022,” He said at the 57th annual bankers’ dinner organized by the Chartered Institute of bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos.
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