Dollar Rates Fall In Official Window, Up In Black Market, To Affect Fuel Price

At the close of trading in the official market on Monday, foreign exchange traders exchanged the United States Dollar (USD) at N741.50/$1.

This was below the N769.25/$1 rate the authorised dealers sold the dollar last week Friday, indicating the price of the USD dropped by N27.75 kobo, while the value of the naira increased by 3.60 per cent.

Although the price of the dollar fluctuated during trading in the investors’ and exporters’ window, rising as high as N792/$1, and as low as N696.37/$1.

With the price fluctuating in the official market, the investors and exporters traded $88.68 million in foreign exchange after business hours.

The authorised dealers saw a 66.3 per cent decline in the value of foreign exchange transacted, which is $174.77 million lower than the $263.45 million forex transactions recorded reported on Friday.

According to the Naira Rates, a black market rate aggregator, the dollar didn’t share the same fate in the Bureau De Change window of the black market.

The black market dollar price was placed at N770.2/$1. The rate was increased by N5.9 kobo or 0.77 per cent from the N764.3/$1 average rate of Friday.

In the same vein, the British pound rate was raised in the Bureau De Change window to N991.5/£1, up from N980.9/£1 parallel rate.

Also, the Euro was sold in the black market at an average rate of N851.3/€1, contrasting the previous price of N843.2/€1. 

Meanwhile, with the convergence of the dollar rates in the official window and the black market, the oil marketers said a level playing field has been created to compete with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited by importing fuel into Nigeria. 

Although, the oil marketers have also stated that the prices of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, could be impacted by the cost of the dollars. 

The President of the Association of Distributors and Transporters of Petroleum Products (ADITOP), Lawan Dan-Zaki, had stated that: “The former official exchange rate by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is not realistic anymore. 

“So if an importer is importing product, he has to buy at black-market rate and that will determine how much to be sold to marketers and other consumers. 

“If he imports at N700 per dollar, there is no way a marketer will buy at N700 and still sell at same price.”