Official Market’s Foreign Exchange Dealers Reduce Dollar Rate

The official market’s foreign exchange rate closed at ₦462.50 kobo on Wednesday, 19 April 2023, as the Dollar loses ground to the Naira.

Nigeria’s currency grew in value by 0.16 per cent at the end of trading, as traders dropped the price of a Dollar by ₦0.75 kobo.

Recall that Prime Business Africa previously reported on Tuesday, 18 April, that the foreign exchange rate between the Dollar and the Naira settled at ₦463.25 kobo.

However, before the Dollar rate in the official market closed at ₦462.50 kobo on Wednesday, traders had exchanged the foreign currency at a high rate of ₦466, as well as at a low rate of ₦460.

During trading on the Investors and Exporters window in the official market, $148.02 million worth of foreign exchange was transacted by traders on Wednesday.

The supply of foreign exchange increased 55.07 per cent, as investors and exporters traded $52.57 million more than the $95.45 million transacted in the previous session.

While it’s unclear if the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will intervene in the foreign exchange market to provide more Dollars for the official market that is struggling with scarcity, the Nigerian financial regulator provided more Naira to end the scarcity of the local currency. 

READ: Dollar Rate Hits N463.67, Tinubu Plans To Cut Exchange Rate To N200

Prime Business Africa previously reported that both Dollar and Naira were scarce in Nigeria, forcing traders to spend more on Naira by buying the Nigerian banknotes from Point of Sales (PoS) operators, as banks said the Naira wasn’t available between February and March 2023. 

The Naira became scarce after CBN mopped the majority of the old N200, N500 and N1,000 from the economy, but printed insufficient new banknotes. 

However, after the Supreme Court’s final judgement on 3 March, ordering the CBN to release the old Naira notes, the apex bank has pushed N701.4 billion local currencies into circulation in one month, enabling traders to have access to the banknotes without having to pay extra for them at the PoS kiosk. 

This limits the worries of traders, leaving them with only the Dollar notes to struggle for at the official market.