Naira appreciates at parallel market, depreciates marginally at official window

The naira appreciated marginally at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Monday.

At the Lagos street market, currency traders, also known as bureau de change (BDC) operators, quoted the naira at N1,480 to the dollar.

The figure represents an appreciation of N10 or 0.68 percent from the N1,490/$ traded on June 7.

The traders put the buying price of the dollar at N1,450 and the selling price at N1,480 — leaving a profit margin of N30.

At the FMDQ Exchange, a platform that oversees official foreign exchange (FX) trading in Nigeria, the local currency depreciated marginally by 0.02 percent to N1,483.62/$ on Monday — from N1,483.29/$ on June 7.

During trading hours, the dollar traded as high as N1,505 and as low as N1,410/$.

At the official window, a daily turnover of $161.69 million was recorded.

The devaluation of the naira has positively impacted exports. according to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

Timi Bomodi, customs comptroller, Seme command, on June 9, said has made Nigerian goods affordable for African countries.

“We are talking about the exchange rate of naira vis a vis its impact on exports. Now, as the value of naira begins to decline, you find out that Nigerian-made goods are considered cheap within the region,” Bomodi said.

“This encourages people from neighbouring countries to want to purchase goods from Nigeria but while we complain that the exchange rate has a negative impact on imports, it has a positive impact on exports.

“Yes, we couldn’t buy goods because the dollar was high but people saw a cheap naira as an opportunity to get goods from Nigeria.”

Bomodi said the devaluation of the naira has boosted the local economy.