Bureau De Change Operators Panic As Dollar Goes On Free Fall!

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A trader changes dollars with naira at a currency exchange store in Lagos February 12, 2015. REUTERS/Joe Penney

It is no longer news that Nigeria’s local currency has been appreciating in recent weeks, which is happening on the back of the continued and consistent interventions in the forex market by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

But these policies of the CBN which have been applauded by a lot of Nigerians have translated into woes for black market currency traders as their customers are dropping drastically on the regular basis.

Bureau De Change operators in Lagos have said that the value of the naira which dropped to N390 as at the time of press was causing them much loss as many customers have stopped patronizing them.

The black market forex operators, according to findings, did not envisage a quick downfall of the dollar which has caused them to buy at an expensive rate, hoping to make returns. Some of these traders who spoke to this magazine said they had not been able to sell the dollars that they have with them because they bought it at N420 and it fell almost immediately to N390, so customers were not buying.

“People are not buying dollars anymore for now. They are waiting for a level where the CBN cannot go beyond before they demand for dollars again,” stated an operator in Ikeja.

Meanwhile, according to currency analysts and economic experts, the naira will record further gain in the coming days as the CBN aims to narrow the gap between the official and parallel market rates.

Although, this new development depends on what the CBN is targeting, the good thing is that when the dollar sells for between N375 and N380, the incentive to do round-tripping will not be there anymore and this is good for the market, the economy and the country.