Despite the ‘CBN Naira 4 Dollar Scheme’, the Nigerian currency weakened against the United States dollar at the Bureau De Change by 0.42 per cent to close at N477/$1 in the second week of March.
The Central Bank of Nigeria had recently introduced the scheme to enlarge the scope and scale of foreign exchange inflows into the country in a view to stabilising the exchange rate.
At the parallel (black) market, the naira fell by 1.04 per cent to close at N485.00/$1 this week.
The naira weakened against the greenback at the Investors’ and Exporters’ window by 0.24 per cent to close at N410.00/$1 amid sustained rise in crude oil prices.
While at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market, it closed flat at N380.69/$1 amid weekly injections of $210m by the CBN into the forex market.
According to a report by analysts at Cowry Asset Management, the naira/dollar exchange rate appreciated for all of the foreign exchange forward contracts.
The analysts said, “In the new week, we expect naira/dollar to stabilise at most FX windows as crude oil prices sustain the bullish momentum.
“However, we feel that the CBN’s Naira 4 Dollar Scheme appears to be another form of naira depreciation which may have sent wrong signal to the forex market.”
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