The naira lost 0.54 percent on the black market to close at 750 to the dollar on Thursday due to a supply shortage, but gained 0.06 percent at the Investor and Export window to settle at 462.73 to the dollar.
However, the naira on the official market finished unchanged at 461.07/USD. The naira ended trading on Wednesday at 463.02 per US dollar, despite reaching an intraday high of N467 and a low of N460, according to statistics from the FMDQ.
As a result of the Central Bank of Nigeria weakening the naira on the spot market and at its foreign exchange auction on Thursday in an effort to resolve a backlog of demand for foreign currency, traders claim that the naira touched a record low of 466 per dollar on the official market.
The merchants said that the CBN sold hard currency to firms for raw materials and other imports for N630 at its final auction on Friday while adjusting rates on Wednesday to N465 from 460 naira per dollar.
For stakeholders in the economy, the forex situation in Nigeria has been a persistent cause of pain. They have bemoaned its effects on their operations, including the importation of raw materials and others.
Remember that the World Bank encouraged the Federal Government to implement more measures to improve the economy and restore macroeconomic stability in its most recent Macro Poverty Outlook for Nigeria published in April.
“Macroeconomic stability has weakened amid declining oil production, expensive fuel subsidies, exchange rate distortions, and monetization of the fiscal deficit,”it said in part.
By restoring macroeconomic stability through measures to boost oil and non-oil income, tightening monetary policies to lower inflation, and integrating the several FX windows and adopting a single, market-responsive exchange rate, the government can enhance the economy.
The governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, said that exporters of raw and unprocessed goods will henceforth get a rebate for every dollar of non-oil export profits sold at the I&E window at the third “Race to US$ 200bn In FX Repatriation” non-oil export conference.
“At first, we chose to limit rebate payments to value-added products in order to encourage exporters to branch out from only shipping raw materials. Instead of merely exporting raw commodities, we wanted to provide you the chance to put up a deal that processes these raw materials and generates employment for our people,” he stated.
