Naira falls massively at aboki black market (See new exchange rate)

Naira has fallen to the lowest on the aboki black market since the beginning of 2022.

IDOMA VOICE reports that the black market rate for dollar in Nigeria today has seen the Nigerian naira drop to N614 against the dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange market better known as the black market.

This online news platform understands that the black market rate for dollar in Nigeria signifies a depreciation of N7 or 1.2 per cent compared to the N607 it traded last two weeks.

Bureaux De Change operators (BDCs), popularly known as ‘abokis’ in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city, said they purchase a dollar at N608/$ and then sell at N614, making a gain of N6 per dollar sold.

The naira also depreciated at the official market by 0.21 percent to close at N421/$, according to information obtained from FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange — a platform that oversees official foreign-exchange trading.

International organisations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have constantly advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to unify the official and parallel market exchange rates.

However, the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, had said that despite advice offered by IMF and the World Bank, developing economies such as Nigeria had the liberty of adopting “homegrown solutions” to their economic problems.

The governor of the apex bank said the managed floating exchange rate, which allows the CBN to intervene in the market when there is a supply shock, would be in place as long as supply exceeds demand.

“They want us to free the exchange rate. And you do know that this has some impacts on the exchange rate itself,” he had said.

“When you allow that to happen, you will have an uncontrollable spiral on the naira.

“But what managed float means is that we have some measures in place to help control the spiral.”