Official Naira To Dollar Rate Slumps, Black Market Sells USD At Higher Price

The naira to dollar rate in the investors’ and exporters’ window closed at N746.2/$1 on Thursday, as the value of the United States currency dropped by 4.63 per cent.

Prime Business Africa learnt that authorised dealers were willing to drop the price of United States Dollar by N36.29 kobo, from Wednesday’s N782.49/$1.

Although, before the curtain was drawn down on Thursday’s session, the dollar rate had circled around N818/$1, the highest price for the day, and N730/$1, the lowest the USD was sold.

Both authorised dealers and their clients traded $90.52 million in foreign exchange, against the $87.38 million they transacted the previous day.

According to data released by the FMDQ Exchange, the foreign exchange traders raised the value of their forex transactions by $3.14 million or 3.46 per cent.

Meanwhile, the black market traders saw the average rate of the dollar rising to N797.8/$1, which is N4.8 kobo higher than the previous day’s N793/$1 rate. 

Those interested in purchasing the British pounds had to cough more naira on Thursday compared to the day before, as the price of the UK currency rose from N1043.1/£1 to N1055.8/£1. 

The European currency, the euro, also cost more, with the average rate being N903.9/€1, in contrast to the N888.6/€1 the foreign banknotes were sold the preceding day.

Fakoyejo Olalekan

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