Naira Depreciates Further Against Dollar at $1,515 /$ Amidst External Reserves Increase

Naira, the currency of Africa's most populous country, Nigeria, has depreciated further in the parallel market to 1,515 to a dollar over the last weekend.

The new fall represents a 2.97 per cent (N45/$1) depreciation when compared to the exchange rate of N1,470 as at Friday 10th May, 2024.

According to expert reports from Business Day, the decline occurred despite Nigeria’s external reserves increasing marginally by 0.4 percent week on week to a four-week high of $32.4 billion as of May 8, 2024.

It would be recallled that as part of moves towards intervening in the retail segment of the forex market, the CBN in February resumed dollar sales to BDCs. Since then, the apex bank has held three editions of the dollar.

At the last edition, the CBN offered to sell $10,000 per BDCs at directing them to sell at the maximum margin of 1.5 per cent.

Operators of Bureau De Change are reported to have equally started to complain bitterly about dollar disbursements from CBN which they believe is significantly slower than usual, as it now takes three to four weeks between when they make payment and when the dollars are disbursed to them.

Open Television gathered that due to the current trend of delay and the uncertainty in the forex market, some BDCs have started demanding a refund of their Naira payment from the CBN.

Following the dollar gain against the naira, a cross section of Nigerians interviewed by Open Television have expressed deep concerns over how the rising fortune of the dollar against the naira could possibly push up the prices of most goods and commodities, that are mostly imported, in the country.