• Naira May Trade Around 390/Dollar Amid CBN Interventions

The naira will trade around 390 against the United States dollar this week as the Central Bank of Nigeria continues the spate of dollar sale.

According to economic and currency experts, the local currency may close the week slightly above or below the 390/dollar mark.

They argued that it might take major interventions to get the currency to appreciate significantly above the mark.

“I see some marginal depreciation of the naira but the CBN will continue to support it. We will see depreciation and then appreciation. I see the naira closing between 385/dollar and 390/dollar at the parallel market this week,” the Managing Director, Cowry Asset Management Limited, Mr. Johnson Chukwu, said.

“I expect the naira to continue to trade flat on the market, I don’t see any havoc in the market this week,” the National President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, said.

The naira closed at 390/dollar on Friday, having closed flat at the same level for most days of the past week.

The CBN had on Thursday sold $100m to authorised dealers.

The regulator said the sale was meant to meet the requests of wholesale customers at the forex auction in the interbank wholesale window.

The Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department at the CBN, Isaac Okorafor, said the bank would continue its weekly sale of forex to the Bureau de Change segment to meet the needs of low-end users.

Furthermore, he said the CBN had observed that quite a good number of dealers were adhering to the forex guidelines.