At the close of trading on Wednesday, the naira appreciated by 0.16 per cent to 1530.52/$ from 1532.93/$ in the previous trading session on the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market.
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria revealed that the naira traded as high as 1545/$ and the lowest rate of 1500/$, which was lower than Tuesday’s.
At the parallel market, CardinalStone Research said that the naira remained unchanged at 1,585.00/$, thus widening the spread for speculative traders. Analysts reported that the gap between official and parallel market rates has narrowed to about 3.07 per cent from 3.40 per cent at the beginning of the week.
Although the naira depreciated slightly, analysts suggest the market is stabilising due to structural reforms and increased forex inflows.
Sharing her thoughts on the development with reporters, the Chief Executive Officer of CFG Advisory, Tilewa Adebajo, said, “We really need to change our mindset about the exchange rate.
“The reason we are seeing some stability is because there is a new system where everyone uses one portal to buy and sell their dollars or whatever currency.
“Most of the people abroad now use an app when they want to transfer money to Nigeria. When they use the app, it gives them their official rate, does the transfer through that system and the settlement is done.
“I think people are not getting used to the fact that the system has changed in a positive manner. Our so-called parallel market operators are the ones who have not yet caught on to this.
“A lot of the overseas inflow is coming in through that platform. So, there is supply in the market. What is left now is for the parallel market operators and the Bureau De Change to also adopt that method.
“When that is done, we are moving into what is called price discovery. CBN is not the major supplier of dollars to the market any longer, and that is good. Our foreign exchange system has evolved, and a lot of people have not yet understood that evolution.”
