Naira Crashes To 300 Against Dollar

The naira on Tuesday depreciated to exchange at N300 to the dollar at the Bureau De Change (BDCs) segment of the foreign exchange market following the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) announcement to stop the sale of foreign exchange.

The currency exchanged for 300 in Kano, 292 in Abuja and 290 in Lagos, against the United States dollar.

The naira was traded to the dollar at N278 on Monday Jan. 11

A currency trader, Mr Harrison Owoh, said the further depreciation of the Naira was as a result of the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN’s) announcement to stop the sale of foreign exchange to BDCs.
Owoh, the Managing Director of HJ Trust Investment Ltd., said that CBN was yet to issue circular informing BDCs on the latest development, adding that they got the information from the pages of newspapers.

According to him, by CBN allowing dollar deposits into domiciliary accounts by Nigerians means the banks would now have more foreign exchange at their disposal.

He said that the announcement that the BDCs should source for foreign exchange from the autonomous market needed to be defined by the CBN.

This, he said, would enable them to know whether BDCs would now have access to banks to source for foreign exchange.

Owoh said that the naira started falling when the CBN banned banks from selling to BDCs.

“The recent development means there will mass retrenchment in the industry.

“The CBN needs to define the autonomous market because we still need more clarification on this,’’ he said.

Owoh said that there was the tendency for the naira to continue to fall as the announcement had already resulted into scarcity of dollar in the market.

He said there had been clamour in some quarters that the naira be further devalued, adding that this could adversely affect the market.

The managing director said that he was optimistic that the policy would be reversed soon by the CBN.