A surge in demand for dollars in the parallel market driven by banks and end-users combined with slow forex disbursement to BDCs by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, caused the Naira, last week, to fall by 23 per cent against the dollar, thus recording the worst weekly performance of the Naira since February.
Though the CBN came to the rescue of the Naira on Friday by intervening in the official Nigeria Foreign Exchange Market, NAFEM, hence appreciation of the Naira in the parallel market on Friday, currency dealers and analysts were uncertain about the fortunes of the Naira this week, citing pace and speed of CBN intervention as a determining factor.
After two months of steady appreciation to N1,140 on Friday April 19, from N1,1,820 per dollar on Wednesday March 21, the Naira, last week, depreciated for four consecutive days by N285 (25%) to N1,405 per dollar on Thursday April 25th.
Following the same trend in the official market, the Naira depreciated by N169.24 (9.9%) to N1,339.23 per dollar on Friday last week, April 26th, from N1,169.99 per dollar on Friday April 19.
FX rate differential
Financial Vanguard investigations revealed that the steady reversal in the fortunes of the Naira was triggered by a combination of factors, including sharp practices encouraged by the lower exchange rate in the parallel market.
Since the CBN resumed dollar sales to Bureaux De Change, BDCs, the parallel market exchange rate had been below the official market exchange rate. For example on Friday April 19, the parallel market rate at N1,120 per dollar was N64.5 lower than the official rate of N1,234.49 per dollar on that day.
To exploit this gap, banks besieged the parallel market, buy dollars at the cheaper rate and resell to their customers at the higher official exchange rate.
Following the steps of the banks, some forex end-users, also bought dollars in the parallel market, deposit them in their domiciliary account and sell to the banks at the higher official rate.
This practice according to currency dealers triggered huge demand for dollars in the parallel market and hence the 25 per cent depreciation of the Naira in four days last week.
Currency dealers also cited the slow pace of dollar disbursement to BDCs by the CBN. They noted that dollar disbursement to BDCs comes in trickles, with some BDCs not getting dollars for more than two weeks after naira payment to the apex bank.
Confirming this to Vanguard, President, Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria, Dr. Aminu Gwadabe, said: "The depreciation of the dollar was caused by two factors. The first was that people were buying from the open (parallel) market, deposit the dollars in their domiciliary accounts and sell in the interbank market and this is because the open (parallel) market rate is always lower than the interbank market rate.
"The second factor is that we have seen the resurgence of Person-to-Person, P2P, where hedging, margin trading is taking place.
"After nipping in the bud of Binance, other platforms sprang up. And you know transactions in those platforms are purely speculative. The likes of Binance can only be profitable at the expense of naira depreciation because it is a market that you buy low and sell higher."
Scant FX supply in official market
Investigation also revealed the situation was aggravated by the absence of CBN intervention in the official market for some weeks while inflow from Foreign Portfolios, FPIs also dwindled.
Explaining this development, Nnamdi Nwizu, Co Founder Comercio Partners, a Lagos based investment bank, said: "Until yesterday (Friday) when they intervened, CBN had not intervened in the interbank market for weeks, and inflows were drying up.
"Also forex demand that waited for Naira to strengthen (appreciate) seems to be filtering through now, both local and FPI's."
On the outlook for the Naira in the coming weeks, Nnamdi said: "A lot depends on if the CBN continues to intervene in the market to ensure that they don't lose control of the market. And also if we start to see renewed FPI flows."
CBN intervenes
In a bid to arrest the depreciation of the Naira, CBN intervened in the official market on Friday. It also increased speed of dollar disbursement to the BDCs, while also stepping up enforcement activities with its monitoring task force which visited some BDCs and parallel market locations in Abuja and Kano on Friday.
As a result the Naira appreciated in the parallel market on Friday to N1300 per dollar from N1,405 per dollar on Thursday.
Confirming this development, Umoru Ahmed, a currency dealer based in Lagos Island said: "The naira was traded at N1,500 this morning of which I bought. There is no inflow of dollars like before and not all the BDCs have access to dollars especially if they registered late.
"The rate later crashed today to N1,300 per dollar for selling and N1,250 for buying.
"This is because the CBN's taskforce stormed the market today arresting many black market traders which led to many operators reducing their price to sell of their dollars as they don't know what the market will be like tomorrow."
Similarly, Isa Yahaya, a currency dealer in Ikeja said: "In Ikeja today, we bought at N1,320 and sold at N1,350. But the market opened today at N1, 450 per dollar of which I bought a dollar for N1,550.
"But we received hint that the CBN's task force was arresting many black market traders. This led to the appreciation of the naira because we just wanted to quickly sell what we had and wait till tomorrow to see what the market holds.
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"The increase in the rate is due to demand pressure. The number of people demanding for dollars is higher than those selling.
"So it is difficult to meet the demand as we do not have access to buying from BDCs talk of from the CBN."
Also confirming this development and expressing optimism that the naira will further appreciate this week, Gwadehe said: "There is a turn of events now. Naira is appreciating as we speak, the rate has come down to N1,250 - N1,270
"Now the rate is going down due to combination of factors. The CBN has intervened today at the NAFEM market. Dollar sales and disbursement to BDCs have been coordinated and streamlined for efficiency and liquidity.
"The securities agencies have swooped on those illegal behaviours, arrest were made today in Abuja and Kano. So all these factors are playing a bigger role because all the behaviors that have no economic value have been checkmated and streamlined. So I believe appreciation of the Naira cannot but continue."
Speaking further, Gwadabe called for an executive order to deposit their holding into non exports domiciliary with silent sources requirement of an amount below # 50k for 3 months.
He also called for creation of investments bonds for Nigerians in the Diaspora without a tax charges.
