1/6/2017/The Will
David Oputah
The naira Thursday rose sharply against the dollar on the streets closing at N367 – $1 in Abuja and Lagos, recording a N15 gain from its previous close of N382/$.
Aminu Gwadabe, president of the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), said the strength of the local currency followed nearly $5 billion sustained intervention by the Godwin Emefiele-led Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the interbank market since February.
He said the effectiveness of the CBN’s dollar injections in the interbank and the stability in the market require that the regulator reviews the rate band for bureaux de change (BDCs) downwards from N360/$ to $340/$.
Gwadabe said the naira has remained stable across the board in the near term on increased dollar supply to both the official interbank window and the black market. It has been trading around N382/$ on the parallel market in the last two weeks, while at the interbank market the naira was trading at around N305.40/$.
Governor Emefiele had at a briefing at the end of the last MPC meeting hinted that the apex bank would continue to sustain availability of dollars in the markets adding that a convergence of exchange rates in the medium term remained feasible.
Analysts are optimistic that Nigeria will in Q3 exit a grinding recession that has slowed down the economy since 2015.
