Naira closes at 305.85/$1, as money market shut for Eid
The Nigerian currency, Naira, on Friday, closed at the official foreign exchange market on a slight downward trend of 305.85 to a dollar against 305.75 closed the previous week, data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has showed.
This is just as the Nigerian money market suspended all trading activities till resumption on Wednesday 28, June, 2017, due to two-day public holiday declared by the Federal Government to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid-el-Fitr.
The naira had traded on the official interbank market at 305.75 to a dollar the previous week, but dropped to 305.85. However, it appreciated against the other two major currencies, closing at 389.13 and 341.72 compare to 390.44 and 341.40 traded to the Pound sterling and Euro, respectively.
Also, the local currency at the Investors’ and Exporters’ Foreign Exchange (I&E FX) window, on Friday, closed at 362.16, against 363 rates on Thursday, but better than N365.29 closed a week ago, according to data obtained from FMDQ website.
But at the parallel market, the Nigerian currency, remained unchanged at 368 to a dollar, the same rate it closed the forex market upper Friday; and the first trading in the week under review.
Although, Business Times findings, showed that foreign exchange operators at the unofficial segment of the market often capitalised on the closure of the official forex market, most especially, during holidays to hike price of the local currency against the US Dollar.
It would be recalled that the CBN has been intervening on the official market in the recent time in order to narrow the spread between rates on the official market and black market – where the local currency trades around 30 per cent weaker. It has sold about $5 billion since February.
Therefore, insisting that it can sustain continuous injection of dollar into the forex market, while the explaining over the weekend that it would not succumb to pressure to further devalue or float the nation’s currency.
In fact, the Acting Director, Public Communications of the apex bank, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, recently, said that the bank would not devalue the Naira, as that would escalate inflation and worsen the economic situation in the country.
He said that CBN had the constitutional mandate to regulate the currency and prevent any economic situation that would expose Nigerians to hardship.
According to him, those clamouring for the Naira to be devalued are not patriotic, but are selfish out to promote the intersts of their foreign partners.
He insisted that the CBN would continue to stabilise the Naira and resist any policy that would make it go beyond the current exchange rate of less than N400 per US Dollar.
“We can’t float the Naira, because it will escalate inflation. We can’t kill our people by pleasing foreigners.The CBN has the responsibility to protect our people economically; and we won’t introduce a policy that will inflict hardship on them.”
He called on Nigerians to patronise locally- made products as against foreign goods, so as to stimulate the economy and exit the current economic recession.
