BUSINESS
CBN Gives New Instructions To BDCs As Dollar hit 800/$ At Official market: What You Need To Know
On all foreign exchange markets, the naira lost ground once more to the US dollar.
Several days prior, the CBN had published a new guideline that targeted operators of Bureau De Changes.
On Wednesday, August 23, 2023, the official and unofficial foreign exchange (FX) market windows saw the naira continue to exhibit weak performance against the US dollar.
The operations at the various forex markets continue despite the Central Bank of Nigeria‘s (CBN) efforts to restrain them.
CBN’s efforts at official and black market
WOTHAPPEN had earlier reported that CBN instructed Bureau De Change in a circular dated August 17, 2023, titled, Operational mechanism for Bureau de Change operations in Nigeria not to sell or buy dollars above or below a specific limit.
The statement read in parts:
“The spread on buying and selling by BDC operators shall be within an allowable limit of -2.5 per cent to +2.5 per cent of the Nigerian exchange market window weighted average rate of the previous day.
Also, CBN recently announced a Foreign Exchange (FX) Price Verification System (PVS) for importers.
Naira to dollar exchange rate at official, black markets
The impact of the CBN’s efforts did not come into play for the naira at the Investors and Exporters (I&E), black market, and the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) windows of the foreign exchange (FX) market.
FMDQ securities reports that the naira closed against the US dollar on Wednesday at N773.42/$1 in the I&E window.
This represents N2.70 or 0.35% drop in value compared to the previous day’s rate of N770.72/$1.
While in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Naira value depreciated by N6 against the US dollar on Wednesday to settle at N911/$1 compared with Tuesday’s rate of N905/$1
In the parallel market, the Naira went down by N6 against the Dollar to sell at N900/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s exchange rate of N890/$1.
At the close of trade on Wednesday, the exchange rate gap between the black and official markets stood at N126.5.
The naira recently recorded a gain against the dollar and exchanged at the N800/$ band in the black market, but it seems that it was just an effect of the buzz from NNPC Limited’s $3 billion loan.
