By InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The naira on Thursday dropped 1.22 percent in the parallel (black) market on limited dollar sales, according to a Reuters report.

The report says this is coming after nearly half of bureaux de change operators failed to secure dollars at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sale due to incomplete documentation, traders said.

The report said the Nigerian local currency was quoted at N246 compared to the dollar on the parallel market, weaker than N243 traded the previous day.

It said on the official interbank market the naira, which has been pegged against the greenback since February, traded at N198.97 by 1204 GMT.

However, the CBN in its usual e-mail notice announced the naira closed at the interbank market at the rate of N197 to the dollar.

According to Reuters about 1,599 bureaux de change agents out of 2,818 operators were denied access to the foreign exchange sale on Wednesday, limiting dollar supply, quoting Aminu Gwadabe, president of Nigeria’s bureau de change association.

“The bureaux de change operators were denied access to the forex window because of their failure to file documentation backing previous purchases,” said Gwadabe.

The report further affirmed that the CBN last week asked all bureaux de change operators to submit accounts showing their dollar usage at the start of each week before they can access future sales, move traders say was aimed at curbing speculation.

It reported that the black market accounts for less than five (5) percent of total dollar trades in Nigeria.