The naira has been falling since last Wednesday when the Central Bank of Nigeria stopped the sale of foreign exchange to some Bureaux de Change operators for failing to render returns on the utilisation of previous forex purchases.
The exclusion of the BDCs from the weekly forex sale, which continued on Wednesday, has been creating shortage of dollars, causing the greenback to rise at the parallel market.
However, the local currency traded at 198.97 to the dollar at the official interbank market on Thursday. The naira-dollar exchange rate has been moving between 197 and 199 at the official interbank market since February.
The central bank had sold $30.5m to 1,017 BDCs on Wednesday but excluded around 1,801 others from its weekly sale.
“We are in contact with the central bank to resolve issues around the exclusion of some of our members from forex sales and we are expecting a positive response,” the President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators, Mr. Aminu Gwadabe, said while reacting to the development.
The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday said at the annual Bankers’ Committee retreat in Lagos that the fall in oil prices had created pressure on the external reserves and the exchange rate.
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