By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The naira on Friday traded N227/$1 to decline by 0.44 percent compared to N226/$1 it traded the previous day.

Proshare daily exchange rate monitor say the BDC’s buying rate is around N224 to N225 to a dollar band.

“The very weak demand for pounds has seen the value gain marginally to N332 as against yesterday’s price of N333,” the report added.

Also, the Nigeria’s local currency exchanged for the pounds sterling at N332/£1.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in an e-mail report said interbank rate closed at N197.10/US$ on Friday, 13th March, 2015.

Cordros in its report affirmed that the naira appreciated against two (2) of the three (3) currencies it tracked.

The report added the naira was up week-on-week (w/w) against the Euro climbing up three basis points (3bps) to N210.10/€1 and the pounds sterling gained two basis points (2bps) to N294.40/£1 at the inter-bank market.

“Meanwhile it had declined marginally against the U.S Dollar to close at N199.3/$1, 0.2bps down w/w. Since the massive decline in the week of the first election postponement and following the closure of the official market, the local currency had been fairly stable around the indirectly devalued rate of N198/$1,” the Cordros report affirmed.

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the CBN in his bid to defend the naira said it will ban exporters (from accessing the inter-bank market) that refuse to repatriate their proceeds in the foreign exchange market within the stipulated time.

The CBN said it will notify deposit money banks not to lend to exporters who fail to comply with its directive.

The Governor disclosed that about $3-4 billion of proceeds due to be repatriated were outstanding, of which 40 percent would come from oil companies.