The value of the
dollar continued to diminish against the naira as the local currency was traded
at N390 to the greenback on Thursday evening in Abuja.
NAN reports that the naira had also appreciated
against the Euro, exchanging at N400 while remaining stable against the Pound
Sterling at N465.
The last time the naira traded at between N390
and N400 to the dollar at the parallel market was in August 2016.
With the gains made by the local currency in the
last five weeks, the naira inched closer to one of the Central Bank of
Nigeria’s (CBN) key foreign exchange policy objectives of an exchange rate
convergence.
On Wednesday, when the dollar traded for N400, it
marked the beginning of true convergence of official and black market foreign
exchange rates.
At the interbank market, the naira traded for
N375 to the dollar for invisibles and N307 to the dollar for manufacturers and
importers of raw materials eligible to buy forex from the segment of the
market.
The significant gains made by the naira at the
parallel market, according to market analysts, is a reflection of the improved
confidence in the Forex market following the sustained dollar interventions by
the CBN since February.
A Bureau de Change (BDC) operator, who preferred
anonymity in Abuja, told NAN that the gains made by naira over the dollar were
due to CBN’s continued flooding of the market with dollars while there were
very few or no customers to patronise them.
He said several retail customers who used to
resort to the BDCs, which indirectly funded the parallel market, to fund
invisible transactions now bought dollars at a lower rate from the banks.
In all, the Central Bank has auctioned a total of
$1.9 billion through forward sales as well as targeted intervention for
invisibles.
This amount does not include its daily
intervention of $1.5 million on the interbank market.
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