Dollar Weakens As Tinubu Eyes New Exchange Rate For Traders, Investors

The Dollar shed some value to the Naira on Thursday, 4 May, resulting in the Nigerian currency rising by 0.02 per cent, while the cost of the greenback dropped by N0.12 kobo.

Prime Business Africa learnt that the Naira to Dollar rate was ₦462.88 at the end of trading in the official market, falling below the ₦463/$1 it closed on Wednesday, 3 May. 

During the intraday trading, investors and exporters paid as high as ₦466/$1 and as low as ₦460/$1 at some point, but the foreign exchange rate between the Naira and the Dollar eventually closed at ₦463/$1. 

In total, investors and exporters transacted $108.43 million worth of foreign exchange during the trading session on Thursday.

This implies traders in the Investors’ and Exporters’ window of the official market recorded an increase in their transactions, considering they traded $52.32 million the day before. 

The increase in the foreign exchange transaction represents 107.2 per cent or $56.11 million in the day-on-day trading in the Investors’ and Exporters’ window. 

Naira’s recovery comes at a period when President-elect, Bola Tinubu, reassured Nigerians of his desire to keep his campaign promises. 

Tinubu has made several vows, one of which is stabilising the Naira by collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to reduce the pressure on the Naira through monetary and fiscal policy alignment.

Nigeria’s President-elect, who is due to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, 2023, said during his campaign: “My administration will collaborate with the Central Bank to harmonize the fiscal and monetary policy to achieve immediate stabilization of the value of the naira against the US dollars and other currencies and in the short term, strengthen the naira by boosting the supply of foreign currency and moderating demand.

“The short-term goal is to achieve a naira/dollar rate of 300 naira/US$ and gradually achieve a less than 200 naira rate over the next four years.”