Naira has fallen massively at the parallel market amid rising demand and the government crackdown on P2P platforms.
NaijaOnPoint Nigeria reports that the foreign exchange (FX) market opened on Monday, with the naira exchanging with the dollar at 1,430 on the parallel market, popularly called black market.
This represents 5.49 per cent depreciation against the dollar, when compared with the level of N1,350 per dollar closed on Friday at the black market.
Traders attributed the naira weakness to increased demand for the greenback by end users who want to travel for business, tourism, health or education.
At the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), the local currency closed flat on Friday at N1,400.40 per dollar, losing slightly by 0.16 per cent compared with N1,402.67 closed on Thursday.
The intraday high closed at N1,435 on Friday, stronger than N1,445 closed the previous day. The intraday low depreciated to N1,300.40 on Friday as against N1,299.42 on Thursday.
The volume of dollars supplied by willing buyers and willing sellers declined by 13.29 percent to $201.88 million on Friday from $232.84 million recorded on Thursday. The Naira closed flat at N1,380 against the dollar on the parallel market.
Looking ahead, “we expect the Naira to be exchanged within the current band, barring any shocks,” analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited, said.
Meanwhile, NaijaOnPoint Nigeria reported that the President Bola Tinubu Federal Government has announced its decision to remove the Naira from all peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges.
The Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Emomotimi Agama, stated this during a virtual conference with blockchain stakeholders on Monday.
The SEC DG’s declaration follows a recent directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria to fintechs, instructing them to caution their customers against participating in crypto transactions.
The nation’s regulatory bodies have recently intensified their scrutiny of cryptocurrency exchanges, prompting the cessation of naira services by the largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, on March 8.