Jibrin Abubakar
11 December 2008
The value of Naira further depreciated yesterday as the United States Dollar was traded for N130 at the foreign exchange market, Daily Trust learnt. It was exchanged for N125 last week.
Meanwhile, $190 million was traded at the Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) yes-terday, a Central Bank source told Daily Trust.
The WDAS, regulated by the CBN is the official market where foreign exchange end users through their banks bid for fo-reign exchange. It was introdu-ced in February 2006 and it opens Mondays and Wednes-days.
The value of Naira has been depreciating in the past two weeks after enjoying relative stability for about three years.
But the CBN website visited yesterday shows that the ex-change rate remains N125 to a Dollar.
The Black Market arm of the exchange, the Bureaux De Change sold Dollar at N134, an official of the Maurison Bureau D' Change in Abuja, Malam Ibrahim Abdul-lahi told Daily Trust on phone.
A CBN source who sought anonymity said the forex is only responding to the forces of demand and supply.
The CBN Governor Chukwuma Soludo had assured that there is no cause for alarm, saying CBN was ready to wield the big stick on speculators and that the apex bank will meet the increasing demand for the Dollar.
Professor Soludo said the CBN will get back into the inter-bank market and partake in the two-way quote, where a dealer gives a foreign exchange quote in which he indicates the price he is willing to buy and sell.
Economists have also attributed the fall in the value of Naira to the continuous depletion in Nigeria's external reserve, which was caused by the plunging prices of oil at the international market.
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