The value of the naira closed stronger at the close of trading on the Nigeria Autonomous Foreign Exchange market (NAFEM) on Wednesday at N1,542.58 to the dollar.
This is following the appreciation recorded at the official end of the foreign exchange market on Tuesday.
Compared with the N1,551.24 which it closed on Tuesday, the naira had appreciated by 0.6 per cent on Wednesday compared to a 2.9 per cent appreciation recorded the previous day. On Tuesday, inflow at the NAFEM had increased from $68 million on Monday to $117.32 million, with intraday trading recording a low N1,701 and high of N1,100 trading to the dollar.
Inflow at the official market rose to $172.14 million with trades done between N1,755 an N1,050 to the dollar. The appreciation recorded at the official market, however, further widened the gap between the official and parallel market rates.
At the parallel market, the value has so far depreciated by at least 23 per cent between Monday and Wednesday when compared to N1,625 which it sold at the close of business last week.
The value of the naira at the parallel market varied by location with some traders quoting N2,010 to the dollars while some quoted N1,900, and N1,880 to the dollars. However, the volume traded and basis for the spike could not be determined as of press time.
Meanwhile, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have continued its raid on Bureau de Change operators which it said were hoarding dollars.
On Monday, it had raided some BDC operators at the Wuse Zone 4 area of Abuja and arrested about 50 illegal operators.
Similarly, not fewer than seven BDC operators and others were arrested by operatives of the EFCC on Wednesday in Kano state. The persons were arrested by the operatives who carried out a raid on the BDC operators at the popular forex exchange WAPA market in Fagge local government area of the state.
Malam Sani, the Chairman of the market, who confirmed the development to newsmen in Kano, said the operatives raided the market in search of hoarders of dollar, according to Leadership report.
Bayo Onanuga, a special adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had also yesterday, accused crypto trading platform, Binance of manipulating the value of the naira.
In a post on X, Onanuga accused Binance of “blatantly setting exchange rate for Nigeria, hijacking CBN role.
But Binance denied it.
