Naira to dollar stable at official forex market

Naira recorded no movement against the U.S. dollar at the official market on Friday, a day after top officials of two government agencies met to resolve the foreign exchange crisis in the country.

The chairperson of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, and the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Idris Jere, met on Thursday over the forex scarcity rocking the country within the past weeks and months.

Messrs Bawa and Jere held a “strategy” meeting on the issue behind closed doors at the headquarters of NIS in Abuja on Thursday, a tweet by the EFCC said.

The move came a few days after the naira recorded its worst decline ever at the black market segment amidst shortfall in forex supply and increase in demand.

Forex speculators have been blamed for contributing to the free fall in the value of the naira, which prompted the anti-graft agency (EFCC) to invade Bureau-De-Change (BDC) operators’ hub in Wuse Zone 4 area of Abuja last Friday.

According to data posted on the FMDQ website where forex is officially traded, naira closed at N428.12 to a dollar at the close of business on Friday, the same rate it exchanged in the previous session on Thursday.

However, currency dealers at the Uyo and Abuja black markets said they bought the dollar at N655.00 and sold within the range of N660.00 and N668.00 respectively on Friday.

This is a N10.00 or 2 per cent appreciation from the N645.00 the local unit traded at the previous market session on Thursday.

“The dollar rose a bit today because we had demands from Exxon Mobil officials,” a currency dealer said.

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