Technocrat Media, Abuja
Just a day after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said inflation in Nigeria had jumped to 16.8%, the naira on Tuesday further lost value against the dollar trading at N600/$ in the parallel market.
Bureau De Change operators (BDCs), also known as ‘abokis’, said the currency fell sharply on Monday, according to TheCable.
The new rate represents a 0.8 per cent drop compared to N595 to a dollar it traded last week.
A BDC operator in Ikorodu identified as Abubakar told TheCable that buying and selling prices stood at N595 and N600 per dollar.
Pressure on the need to get dollars at the parallel market has continued to cause the fall of the naira.
This could be traceable to the falling external reserves and low inflow of foreign exchange into Nigeria’s economy.
In less than a month, Nigeria’s external reserves dropped by $700 million to $38.72 billion as of May 13, figures obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) indicate.
TheCable says experts have also linked the situation to politics, as they believe those contesting elections are mopping up dollars for election primaries which are scheduled to happen this month across all the political parties.
A parallel market, usually an unofficial market done along the street, is not in compliance with the official rules set by the government.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has consistently maintained that the parallel market is not the true reflection of the naira.
One of such led to the shutdown of the Aboki FX online platform last year.
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