Shortage of dollar weakens naira, exchanges N215/$1

FELIX OLOYEDE |

The inability of most commercial banks to meet foreign exchange of the customers has caused the nation’s currency to lose a whooping N7 against the dollar.

The naira at the parallel market traded for N215/$1 against the N208/$1 it exchanged with the dollar last Friday.

It however, sold for N196.90/$1 at the interbank market, the same rate at which it ended last week.

The President, Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Mallam Aminu Gwadabe told Hallmark that most banks could not meet the dollar demand of their customers, because their request to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) were not granted, making the naira to weaken against the dollar on the first working day of the week.

“Most of the commercial banks could not meet the forex demands of their customers, so they are force to look outside to meet their needs,” he disclosed.

He also attributed increasing economic activities in the country, with more importers demanding for dollars as one of the reasons the dollar gained N7 over the naira.

When Hallmark contracted some of the head of corporate affairs of some of the commercial banks, they denied knowledge of this development.

Meanwhile, the naira was traded for N336/£1 at the parallel market and N305.15/£1 at the interbank market.
A pound was sold for N303.93 on Friday, signifying that the naira lost N1.22 yesterday at the interbank market.

For the euro, the naira exchanged against N237/€1 at the BDCs and although it traded at N221/€1 at the interbank market on Friday.