Naira Tumbles to N402 to Dollar

The Naira on Wednesday dipped further against the dollar closing at N402 to United States currency at the parallel market.

The slide from N397 it closed on Tuesday came a day after the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) banned nine banks from the foreign exchange market over their failure to remit $2.334bn to the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) domiciled with the apex bank.

The Nigerian currency also traded against the Pound Sterling and the Euro at N515 and N450 respectively.

At the interbank market, the Naira closed at 315.93/dollar, lower than 305.5 it recorded on Tuesday.

The Naira, which hit a fresh record low since the CBN floated the currency on the official interbank market in June, first touched 400/dollar at the black market this month.

On the interbank market on Wednesday, no trades were posted until three minutes before the end of the session, when the CBN which has been reducing its dollar sales, intervened, Reuters reported quoting traders.

A financial expert, Mr Harrison Owoh, while corroborating the views above, expressed the hope that the situation would improve as the CBN was handling the matter with all the seriousness it deserved.

Owoh explained that the news of the ban of nine banks from Forex sales had stifled the flow of Forex at the market.