By Munachimso Obienyi
Following the increased demand for the dollar amidst continuous shortages in the nation’s authorized markets, Nigerians and most especially businesses have continued to lament while urging the Federal government to create a stable exchange rate and more transaction channels.
This is coming after the parallel market operators, announced that the exchange rate between the naira and the US dollar fell to a record low on the black market, trading at a minimum of N742/$1 on Monday afternoon.
Also, Nigeria’s headline inflation expanded by 25 basis points in September to 20.77 per cent as against 20.52 per cent recorded in August – the highest print since September 2005 (24.32 per cent).
This means that the Naira fell against the US dollar by 1.5 per cent from an average of N731/$1 recorded last week Friday. Daily Sun investigations revealed that the rate at N742/$1 is the highest on record, indicating a market differential of N300.62/$1 between the official market and the parallel market.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had increased the monetary policy interest rate to 15.5 per cent last month from 14 per cent in a bid to tame the rising inflation in the country, which reached a 17-month high in August 2022, largely due to the global energy crisis and depreciating exchange rate.
The apex bank has continued to intervene in the official market to manage exchange rate volatility in the market, which has strained the country’s external reserve amidst dollar shortages in the economy.
According to data from the CBN, Nigeria’s foreign reserve has already lost over $2.6 billion year-to-date to stand at $37.91 billion, from over $40 billion recorded as of the end of last year.
However, Bureau De Change operators (BDCs) in the country have said the unorthodox foreign exchange policy of CBN is adversely impacting the naira exchange stability across all markets and have created a huge premium between official and parallel market rates.
