Forex: Naira gains marginally at official, parallel markets

By Ihesiulo Grace 23 July 2019 3 No comment

…As traders eagerly awaiting outcome of MPC meeting today

Motolani Oseni

The Nigerian currency, Naira at the close of yesterday trading activities strengthened against the US Dollar at both the official and unofficial foreign exchange markets.

This is even as activities at the market on Monday remained slow, due to the anticipation of the likely outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Although, the local currency recorded a marginal gain of 0.02 per cent to close at N306.90 to the dollar at the CBN official rate, but appreciated by 50 Kobo to trade at N358.5 to the dollar at the parallel market in Lagos, which was slightly stronger than N359 traded on Friday.

The Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N458 and N403 respectively.

At the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment, the naira closed at N360 to the dollar at, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro exchanged at N458 and N403, respectively.

Trading at the Investors & Exporters (I&E FX) window saw the naira closing at N361.48 to the dollar, representing a marginal drop of 0.01 per cent, however, recorded market turnover of $90.86 million.

Meanwhile, industry stakeholders, local and foreign investors are all waiting anxiously for the outcome of the 268th meeting of the MPC, which is expected to be concluded today in Abuja.

The MPC had at its last meeting voted to hold all parameters of the monetary indices – meaning that the retention of anchor lending rate, (Monetary Policy Rate) 13.5 per cent as adopted in March, retain the asymmetric corridor of +200/-500 around the MPR; CRR at 22.5 per cent and liquidity ratio at 30 per cent.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had said that the decision of the MPC to retain anchor lending rate,( Monetary Policy Rate) 13.5 as adopted in March, across the asymmetric corridor of +200/-500 around the MPR; CRR at 22.5 per cent and liquidity ratio at 30 per cent, Emefiele explained was, to shield the economy from inflationary pressure.