Naira Falls To N522 Amid CBN Ban On BDCs

Nigeria's local currency plunged to N522 against the dollar at the parallel market on Wednesday after the Central Bank announced the discontinuation of Bureau De Change operations in the country.

The naira dropped 1.98 percent in value against the dollar from Tuesday's N505/$1 as traders at the black (parallel) market are now hoarding their dollars to avoid losing their money following the apex bank's decision.

However, there are rumours that across the streets, Naira fell as low as N530 per dollar from N505/$ on Tuesday, which represents a 4.95 percent loss in the value of Naira against the US dollar in one day.

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the CBN, who announced the decision on Tuesday after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, noted that the central bank sells about $110 million to BDCs every week.

He said going forward, those funds will be made available to commercial banks to meet genuine demand for foreign exchange.