Suspicion worsens dollar scarcity

News Express |15th Nov 2016 | 2,914

Suspicion and fear permeates Lagos parallel market as traders struggle to come to terms with last week’s raid by security operatives, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

The situation worsened the scarcity of the greenback as traders’ fear that men of the Directorate of State Security (DSS) were still disguising as potential foreign exchange buyers in the market.

A currency trader, who pleaded anonymity, said the situation might further erode the gains made by the CBN in ensuring the sale of the proceeds of Diaspora remittances to BDCs.

Meanwhile, currency traders said that it was difficult to put a price on the dollar since it had become scarce.

However, the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N560 and N500 at the parallel market.

At the BDC window, a dollar traded at N385/N400, CBN controlled rate, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N555 and N500, respectively.

The Naira lost 25 kobo at the interbank market to close at N305.25, from N304.75 recorded on Friday.

NAN recalls that some operatives of the DSS had on Thursday raided some unregistered BDCs and parallel market traders over an alleged arbitrary sale of forex above the official price. (NAN)