The naira
fell against the United States dollar from 243 to 247 at the parallel
market on Thursday, a day after the Central Bank of Nigeria banned over
1,600 Bureau De Change operators from participating in its twice-weekly
sale of foreign currencies.
The naira had hovered between 241 and 243 before falling to 247 on the streets of Lagos and Abuja.
The CBN
had on Wednesday stopped BDC operators who failed to render appropriate
returns on the utilisation of previous forex purchased from it.
Out of the
over 2,800 BDCs that applied to buy forex on Wednesday, 1,600 failed to
satisfy the CBN on the utilisation of previous allocations and were
consequently denied access to fresh supplies.
The
development led to serious scarcity of dollar across major cities on
Thursday. While the greenback sold for 247 in the parallel market; the
United Kingdom pound sterling, which was previously going for 355
against the naira, went as high as 360. Similarly, the euro went from
277 to 280.
The hopes
of buying Personal Travel Allowance and Business Travel Allowance by
hundreds of intending passengers were dashed at the Murtala Muhammed
International Airport, Lagos as Travelex and other currency dealers
there ran out of forex.
Apart from
Travelex, which did not have dollars, pounds and euros to sell to
passengers, other operators also ran out of forex at the Lagos airport.
The few ones that had forex to sell to travellers sold the dollar, pound
and euro for 247, 360 and 280, respectively.
The
currency was quoted at 246 against the dollar at the unofficial market,
weaker than 243 the previous day. At the official interbank market, the
naira, which has been pegged against the greenback since February,
traded at 198.97 by 1204 GMT, according to Reuters.
The
President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria, Aminu
Gwadabe, said, “The bureaux de change operators were denied access to
the forex window because of their failure to file documentation backing
previous purchases.”
The
central bank had last week asked all bureaux de change operators to
submit accounts showing their dollar usage at the start of each week
before they could access future sales, a move traders say was aimed at
curbing speculation.
The
unofficial market accounts for less than five per cent of total dollar
trades in Nigeria. The CBN sells a maximum of $30,000 to each operator
every week.
SOURCE: PUNCH REPORTING
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