Naira strengthens against dollar in official market

The Nigerian naira, on Monday, appreciated against the United States dollar, closing at N838.95 to $1 at the official foreign exchange market .

According to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, an official platform that oversees foreign exchange (FX) trading in Nigeria, the naira recovered significantly against the United States dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM),

The naira recovered from N890.54/$1 that it closed on Friday January 12, 2024 to N838.95/$1, on Monday, January, 15th, 2024

However, speaking to our Correspondent on Monday, the President, Association of Bureau D Change Operators (ABCON), Aminu Gwadabe, said the refining of Jet A1, Kerosene and Diesel by Dangote Refinery will as well shore up the naira.

According to him, local refining of petroleum products would create enough buffer for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to defend the naira.

“We will continue to witness volatility and we thank God the Dangote Refinery has started operation interns of diesel, kerosene and Jet A1 and to a large extent we hope that it will help in reigning Importation of this product that are now manufactured locally and it will aide our reserves and once our reserve increases the CBN will have enough buffer to continue to protect the Naira. In the medium term and long term, we hope we will continue to see the naira maintaining a steady advantage over the US dollar.”

Gwadabe, however, stated that there should be paradigm shift in the supply of United States dollar into the financial market.

“We need to have a paradigm shift in terms of supply, it’s very important and should be immediate. We have been talking about diaspora remittances and as at last year we recorded over $20bn and the market is willing buyers and sellers.

“We need to separate operation and ownership if we say an IMTSO should be the one to initiate and terminate transaction then hope for transparency and transaction will be defeated so we are advising that the CBN should review the 2020 circular, whereby, they have agreed or stated that the BDC should be agent of the International Money Transfer Transaction so that we can now separate operation and ownership so that it won’t be you that initiate the fund as the owner will be the one terminating the fund to the ultimate beneficiary,” he stated.