…Naira firms at 375/$1
From Uche Usim, Abuja
Barring unforseen circumstances, the United States dollar is set to crash further this week as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) plans yet another round of interventions in the interbank market.
This is as the naira has continued to do extremely well in the black market, firming at N375/$1 in most Bureaux De Changes in Abuja.
Daily Sun findings reveal that most forex hoarders who hitherto calculated that the apex bank’s interventions were not sustainable have continued to record heavy losses with the latest interventions in February.
A source at popular black market spot at Sheraton Hotels, Abuja who craved anonymity said: ‘some rich men have started bringing their dollars for us to sell because the value has been going down. Some of them claimed they bought dollars at N380. Another said he bought at N400 and so if they don’t sell now, they’ll lose seriously. So they’re bringing the dollars out because the value is dropping”, he said.
However, there were indications at the weekend that the apex bank planned to pump in more foreign exchange into the interbank space to meet the demands of genuine wholesale and retail customers as well as strengthen the value of the naira against other international currencies.
The planned move by the CBN, sources say, will further firm up the naira against other currencies as the exchange rates of the greenback and the United Kingdom Pound Sterling continue to move southwards.
Investigations revealed that the US dollar, Euro and the Pound, exchanged at the parallel market over the weekend at the rates of N375, N405 and N475, respectively, with the hope that the figures will further nosedive this week.
Speaking at the weekend, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Isaac Okorafor, confirmed the plan to inject more foreign exchange into the forex market in the weeks ahead.
According to him, the move underscores the commitment of the CBN to sustain the tempo of liquidity in the interbank market in the interest of different categories of genuine end-users.