Fakoyejo Olalekan
October 27 Dollar Exchange Rate: The dollar-to-naira black market exchange rate on Monday, crossed the N800 mark, setting its gaze on a possible N1,000/$ mark by December 2022, in line with Prime Business Africa analysis last September.
The newspaper also predicted that the central Bank of Nigeria may be considering the option of officially devaluing the currency, already devalued by market forces.
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Monday, the last day of November, saw the Nigerian currency fall in value, following President Muhammadu Buhari’s confirmation that the country would be going ahead with the release of redesigned naira notes. The apex bank’s plan to re-issue new notes, Prime Business Africa reports, could provide an easy platform for the country to officially devalue the Naira in response to market pressures without much controversy. Critics suspect that the CBN could issue new notes of higher denomination, alongside the redesigned notes.
In the parallel market, the demand for dollar soared significantly, driving the value of the United States currency to as high as N865/$1, as Bureau De Change operators moved to profit from the dumping of naira.
During the previous trading on Friday, Bureau De Change operators had sold the American greenback at N790/$1, which means the naira devalued by N75 in one day, representing a depreciation of -9.49 per cent.
Year-to-date, the naira has devalued by a whopping N300, considering it started January with N565. This indicates that the dollar has appreciated by 53 per cent within 10 months against the Nigerian currency.
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The rise of the dollar against the naira continues to move in line with Prime Business Africa’s previous report that the exchange rate between the two currencies could hit N1000 before the end of 2022.
Also, the President of Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Aminu Gwadabe, had stated that, “I am not a prophet of doom and student of continuing naira depreciation but except fundamental goodwill and courage are demonstrated, the naira will continue to suffer loss in exchange for the greenbacks.”
Gwadabe’s statement was backed by his believe that the foreign exchange policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under its governor, Godwin Emefiele, “has adversely impacted the naira stability across all markets and created a huge premium between official and parallel market rates.”
