Currency extends gain against dollar, sells at N440-N445 per dollar

The Naira on Monday continued to extend its gains against the dollar at the parallel market, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

The Nigerian currency exchanged at N440 (buying rate) and N445 (Selling rate) to a dollar, from N445/N450 it traded on Friday, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N530 and N465.

At the Bureau De Change (BDC) window, the Naira exchanged at N398 (buying rate) and N400 (selling rate), while the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N545 and N480.

Traders at the market said they were happy with the level of liquidity but appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sustain it to further reduce the gap between the official and parallel market rates.

Meanwhile, Prof. Sherifdeen Tella, a Senior Economist at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun, has said that injecting dollars into the interbank market by the CBN is not sustainable.

“I don’t think that injecting dollars into the interbank market is a permanent solution to the challenges at the FOREX market.

“It is only a temporary measure,’’ Tella said

The don, who noted that speculators were the major drivers of volatility in the FOREX market, said that the CBN should change the colours of the N1000 and N500 notes to force them to bring out the currencies in their coffers.

Tella called for a reduction in the benchmark interest rate by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the CBN, to enable startups to borrow money to finance their businesses.