August 10, (THEWILL) – The Naira plummeted to N915/$ on Wednesday, August 9, 2023, exactly two months after President Bola Tinubu suspended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, from office on June 9, 2023.
Checks with the parallel market traders in Lagos revealed that the Naira traded between N910/$ and N915/$ on Wednesday, making it one of the lowest spots the local currency had hit since the abolition of the multiple rate system on June 14.
The FMDQ website, which aggregates the rate performance, showed that the naira closed at N782.38/$ on Wednesday, implying a gap of N135.62 which is significant enough to trigger arbitrage.
Wednesday’s rate was the second deepest spot in August after the naira plunged to N789.08/$ on August 1, but one of the deepest since the Naira was floated. The rate plunged to N803.90/$ on July 14.
THEWILL tracking of the daily exchange rate movement showed that the naira traded for N777/$ on the average in July, showing that the local currency depreciated by 66.7 percent on the I&E window compared to 4471.47/$ on June 13 – the day before the floating of the naira.
Emefiele was subsequently arrested by the Department of Security Services (DSS) and taken into custody on June 10 before he was arraigned on July 25 after over six weeks in detention following a court order on July 13 to charge or release him.
The Nigerian government on June 14, 2023 announced the unification of the multiple exchange windows which led to the floating of the Naira, plunging the national currency into a spate of depreciation that recorded N664.04/$ at the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) window on the same day.
The Naira had maintained a remarkable plunge since then, competing with the parallel market which created a narrow gap with the I&E window and at a time fused into the same rate, before slipping deeper.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
