The continued weakening of the naira has made financial
analysts predict the possibility of the Nigerian local currency exchanging for
as high as N500 to a dollar by next week, if care is not taken to salvage the
economy.
Despite the fact that most Nigerians living abroad who are
in the country for the Christmas holiday would have flooded the country with
hard currencies, dollar is still said to be scarce, thus making the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to cut supply to operators of forex.
As at the close of business on Thursday, the local currency
was 495/USD at the parallel market, which is N10 higher that the rate previously.
Meanwhile, on the interbank window, the rate was N310.5/USD.
“There is an acute shortage of dollars in the market because
of supply being slashed by half to Bureau de Change operators from
international money transfer agents, pushing the naira down,” one trader said.
Due to the shortage of dollars, the forex traders at the
black market now get $8,000 each week, which is far below the $15,000 they were
being issued in the past.
The severe shortage of the dollar has put the naira under
persistent pressure at both the official and parallel forex markets.
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