Nse Anthony-Uko, with agency report
ABUJA, (Sundiata Post) – Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves rose 8.39 percent to $27.88 billion by Jan. 26 from a month ago, climbing to their highest level in 10 months, data on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed on Tuesday.
However, the reserves were 1.27 per cent than its $28.24 billion position the same period a year ago, the data showed.
Nigeria’s dollar reserves have been rising this year to gain 6.9 per cent so far. The central bank did not provide any reason for the recent rise, which may be attributed to the recent rise in global oil prices.
Meanwhile, the naira was traded for as low as N499/$1 on the black market on Tuesday, 39 per cent weaker than on the official market, where the central bank has been selling the greenback to support the local currency, according to a Reuters report.
On the official market, the naira was quoted at N305.25 on Tuesday, the level it has been trading at since last August.
Traders said the dollar was fetching between N495 and N499 on the black market. It was quoted at N497 on the black market two weeks ago.
The approved bureau de change operators set their first ever reference exchange rate for the naira this month and have maintained the same quote for the currency at N399 per dollar for the past three weeks.
Foreign exchange bureaus said international money transfer agents were selling $8,000 to each of their 3,000 members weekly to support liquidity, which is far short of market demand.
The government has been pressing retail operators to narrow what it says is a damaging gulf between the naira’s official rate and the unapproved open retail market – black market.
The naira lost a third of its official value against the greenback in 2016 after the central bank scrapped a currency peg in a bid to alleviate dollar shortages.
Retail currency operators account for less than 5 percent of total foreign currency trading in Nigeria. But with liquidity poor on the official market due to low oil revenues and the central bank left as the main dollar supplier, the bureau de changes have done more business.
