Forex demand intensifies as Naira slides to N683/$ at black market

Foreign exchange continues to be scarce as the naira dropped to N683 per dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange market, popularly called the black market.

The figure represents a depreciation of N3 or 0.4 per cent from the N680 it traded last week.

Bureaux De Change operators who spoke to TheCable put the buying price of the dollar at N678 and the selling price at N683, leaving a N5 profit margin.

“Demand is still high, but we don’t have enough dollars,” a currency trader said.

Last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria stopped Forex allocation to BDC operators.

CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, said the black market traders turned away from their objectives to become money laundering agent.

The CBN later commissioned deposit money banks to cover the expected demand from the public.

The apex bank has also consistently maintained that the parallel market represented less than one percent of FX transactions and should never be used to determine Nigeria’s naira/dollar exchange rate.

At the official market, the naira depreciated by 0.09 percent to close at N430 on Monday, according to details on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange — a platform that oversees official foreign-exchange trading in Nigeria.