The Dollar to Naira exchange rate in the black market rose to N1,590 per Dollar on Saturday, 21st December from N1,620 per Dollar it closed on Friday, 20th December 2024.
Operators via AbokiFX are buying the Dollar for as low as N1,630 and as high as N1,700.
The rate at the official market closed at N1,541 per Dollar as of December 19 according to quotes on the FMDQ Securities Limited website.
The Naira has been trending upward since the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)-backed Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS), which set new guidelines for authorised Foreign Exchange (FX) dealers earlier this month.
To further alleviate pressure on the official market, the apex bank granted Bureaux de Change (BDC) operators temporary access to the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), which is the official market, as part of efforts to further strengthen the Naira in the currency market.
The CBN in a notice on Friday said BDC operators would have access to FX at the official market from December 19, 2024, to January 30, 2025, with a weekly cap of $25,000.
Transactions require upfront funding at prevailing rates and must follow a maximum of 1 per cent spread.
The EFEMS initiative, according to Mrs Omolara Duke, the CBN’s director of the financial markets department, was designed to ensure “transparent, fair, and efficient FX trading, minimise counterparty risks, and enforce compliance with CBN regulations.”
Between December 2 when the new electronic trading platform commenced and December 20, 2024, the Naira recorded over N250 gain over the Dollar in the official FX market.