Naira has gained massively after a free fall last week.
Newsonline reports that Nigeria’s official currency, Naira, gained on Monday, October 18, trading at N414.46 per a dollar.
This online news platform understands that the massive gain is coming after Naira dropped by 2.6 percent to N422 per dollar last week Thursday, October 14, 2021, hitting an all-time low at the Nigerian autonomous foreign exchange (NAFEX) rate — the default FX reference for official and legitimate transactions.
Also, at the parallel market also known as black market, the Naira also gained on Monday, trading at N572 per dollar at the Lagos market on Monday morning after it traded at N575 per dollar last week.
Meanwhile, Newsonline Nigeria reports that the development is coming a week after Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) led by Godwin Emefiele to allow the naira reflect the realities of the market.
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The Vice President had said the exchange rate is artificially low and deterring investors from bringing foreign exchange into the country.
“Prof. Osinbajo is not calling for the devaluation of the Naira. He has at all times argued against a willy-nilly devaluation of the Naira,” Laolu Akande, spokesperson to Vice-President had explained in a statement.
“For context, the Vice-President’s point was that currently the Naira exchange rate benefits only those who are able to obtain the dollar at N410, some of who simply turn round and sell to the parallel market at N570.
“It is stopping this huge arbitrage of over N160 per dollar that the Vice-President was talking about. Such a massive difference discourages doing proper business, when selling the dollar can bring in 40% profit!
“This was why the Vice-President called for measures that would increase the supply of foreign exchange in the market rather than simply managing demand, which opens up irresistible opportunities for arbitrage and corruption.
“It is a well-known fact that foreign investors and exporters have been complaining that they could not bring foreign exchange in at N410 and then have to purchase foreign exchange in the parallel market at N570 to meet their various needs on account of unavailability of foreign exchange.”