BEVERLY HILLS, AUGUST 25, (THEWILL) – The naira Thursday dropped to previously unseen levels, exchanging for as low as N412 to $1 in the unofficial market (black market) from N407 where it closed on Wednesday.
The naira also dipped at the interbank foreign exchange market closing at N316.8 to the $1 from Wednesday’s N315.9 -$1.
Nigeria is going through what is probably its worst economic recession since independence following the crash in the price of crude oil, its major source of revenue.
Foreign exchange traders told THEWILL that the CBN’s suspension of eight banks from foreign exchange transactions at the interbank foreign market added fresh pressure on the unofficial market, which has had its own liquidity shortcomings.
The banks which came under the hammer of the Central Bank of Nigeria for not remitting over $2 billion belonging to the NNPC/NLNG to the federal government’s single account (TSA) as directed President Muhammadu Buhari last year are First Bank, Heritage, Sterling, Diamond, Keystone, Skye, FCMB and Fidelity. UBA was previously amongst the banks but was readmitted into the forex market Thursday after it remitted over $500 million on Tuesday, the day the ban was announced by the CBN.
Nigerian lenders are no strangers to infractions and sharp practices often because of weak regulations. The CBN under Governor Godwin Emefiele is coming really hard on them to clean up their acts.
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