Encomium
Business in the black market is now stabilising as naira continually appreciates against the dollar and other foreign currencies.
On Wednesday, June 21, 2017, a dollar was sold for between N358 and N360. The development was considered to be an off-shoot of the upward movement in the foreign exchange market as a dollar has not been quoted for more than N300 since the directive by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been implemented a couple of months ago.
Some bureau de change operators encomium.ng spoke to on the development expressed happiness. They added that the constant fall in the exchange rate has informed the reason for the availability of the US dollar in the black market at the moment unlike in the past few months when there was acute scarcity of the most popular foreign currency.
According to Usman Adamu, a bureau de change operator in Ogba, Lagos, “The business is better now. More people patronise us now that the dollar keeps crashing. Those who used to hoard dollar, pound and euro are now releasing them into the market because of the fear of further fall in the exchange rate. The exchange rate has been on N370 to the dollar for long. But suddenly, it crashed to N365 in major black market, including Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt. Since then, those hoarding all these foreign currencies with the anticipation that the exchange rate will jump high soon were disappointed. So, they have no choice than to sell them to us before they will depreciate further.
For instance, a dollar now sells within the range of N358 snd N362, while one pound is N435 now and one euro goes for N405. And if it continues like that, dollar may eventually crash to N250 before the end of this year.”
Another operator, Isa Idris also corroborated the earlier submission, saying, “Dollar is going down, Alhamdulillah. We can now get more dollar in the market. We pray it continues like that, we will make more profit because the more dollar in the market the more profit we make. The business is okay now. By the end of this year, I hope dollar should have come down to N220. What’s happening now at the market is as a result of the new forex policy by the CBN that has pegged a dollar to N300 at interbank rate. No one keeps dollar at home again because people now understand the fact that the exchange rate is no longer skyrocketing, and there won’t be any gain in harding the currency anymore.”
- TADE ASIFAT for encomium.ng
