The dollar pressure persisted yesterday despite the over 60 per cent rise in the volume of dollars traded in the foreign exchange market in the previous day, Daily Trust can report.
This is just as experts say the demand for forex would continue to surge with increased pressure on naira.
Our correspondent reports that forex turnover jumped by 61.86% to hit $198.21 million according to data from NAFEM, the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market, the market trading segment for Investors, Exporters and End-users.
The turnover represents the amount of dollars traded at a particular trading day. The $198.21 recorded on Wednesday was described as significant as it represents over 60 per cent rise compared to the volume recorded in the previous day.
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However, this has not reduced the pressure on forex as the currency depreciated further at both the official market and the unofficial (parallel) market.
Yesterday the dollar closed at N956.33 as against N817 to one dollar in the previous day according to NAFEM. This represents N139 increase within 24 hours.
Also, on Thursday the black-market rate which opened during the week with N1,140 depreciated marginally, exchanging at N1,150 to N1,160.
Also, Aboki FX reported that the naira sells for N1,160 on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.
The black-market exchange rate remained the same after moving from N1,145, on Tuesday to N1,160 on Wednesday.
An expert and aviation management consultant, Babatunde Adeniji, said the naira crisis is being largely driven by speculation following the country’s liquidity challenge.
“In terms of price, for the short time it is speculation that drives things. If you are a trader and you want to take a bet, with the level of distrust of the government, with no clear visible assurance of where the dollar is coming from to stabilise the naira, which position would you take? You are bound to take the position skewed towards the dollar,” he stated.
He said the country would begin to heave a sigh of relief when the authorities can pay up all the backlog of foreign exchange forwards with sufficient liquidity to meet pending obligations.
“Nigeria as a country does not have enough dollars to meet its promise. If we don’t do things that are substantial and visible, all that grammar would not help.
In economics, what drives a lot of things is expectation. The general expectation is that it is going to rise more. Also, inflation weakens the value of your currency. It means the purchasing power is reducing. So in terms of inflation, there is no good news.”
He advised the President, Bola Tinubu to settle down and appoint enough people on the board of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to form a quorum for the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.
“The starting point is to pay off all you owe and you have enough dollars …You know how international trade works, you use letters of credit, but Nigerian letters of credits have become mere papers, they have stopped accepting them.”
A Chartered accountant and a financial & risk expert, Olabode Afolayan, urged the citizens to cut their appetite for foreign made goods and also de-dollarise the economy.
“We need to have a change of mindset and be more patriotic. We need to buy more homemade items than importation. Though, the question why people are not buying Nigerian made things is due to quality but we need to do what Chinese did by going local.
He also urged the government to clamp down on Nigerians hoarding the dollars.
“We need not to sabotage the effort of the government and the government should talk to those hoarding the dollar because they are the Big Boys of Nigeria and not ordinary Nigerians.
When they hoard, the government should clamp down on them because the government is doing everything to make naira appreciate by clearing the forex backlogs and clearing trapped funds of foreign airlines.”
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