Naira slumps to N483 to USD

THE naira exchanged N483 to the dollar in the parallel market yesterday.

  This was despite the regular interventions in terms of forex injections by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

  Bureau de Change operators have blamed the depreciation of the naira on the activities of speculators.

  President of Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria, Aminu Gwadabe, said speculators would lose money as CBN had enough reserves to fund the market and defend the naira.

  He stated this while noting that the naira had, in the last few days, depreciated in the parallel market, but had remained stable at N379 to the dollar at the official CBN rate.

  According to Gwadabe, with nearly $36 billion foreign reserves, CBN has what it takes to punish enemies of the economy that force naira to depreciate through speculative activities.

  Explaining that CBN has the needed financial strength to fund the market and expressing hope that the rates would soon converge to save the naira, Gwadabe said exchange rate unification would further narrow the gap between official and parallel market, as being canvassed by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank because it ensured positive transparency, clarity of direction and drastically reduced speculative demand for the naira.

  “I think that the CBN, by pushing the official foreign exchange rate from N306 to N379 to dollar, is in line with market demand. It has also helped to narrow the official-parallel market rates gap that formed the basis of ridiculous speculations among unpatriotic forex dealers and spectators,” he said.