Naira Gained N37 Against the US Dollar on Black Market

The Naira gained N25 against the United States dollar on Tuesday ahead of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) foreign exchange sales.

The central bank had announced it would commence the sale of forex on September 7, 2020, two days after the government would have resumed international flight operations.

The announcement forced criminal speculators and hoarders to bring out dollars they hid to create the persistence scarcity that plunged the local currency to as low as N480 against the greenback on the black market.

The surged in US dollar liquidity helped bolster the Naira value and ease forex scarcity. The local currency has now gained N37 against the US dollar in the last two days to trade at N440 on Tuesday, up from N477 it traded on Friday.

But the Naira has now appreciated by N40 against the US dollar in the last one week.

The improvement was also noticed against the European common currency as the Naira gained another N3 after recording a N10 appreciation against the Euro on Monday.

Against the Pound, the Naira gained N15 on Tuesday to exchange at N590 to a British Pound on the black market. This was after gaining N10 on Monday. Bringing Naira’s total appreciation in the last two days against the British Pound to N25.

The central bank is expected to commence the sale of the forex to 3,000 registered bureau de change across the country to deepen economic activities and support the Naira value.