Naira Dips on Low CBN Dollar Sales
Africa’s biggest crude oil producer’s currency the ‘naira’ declined in transaction by 0.4% to $157.4 as at 4.30pm yesterday in Lagos the biggest since October 5. This according to Bloomberg has been rated the second-best performance in Africa.
It will be noted that the Central Bank leadership of Governor Lamido Sanusi has maintained an unchanged benchmark rate of record 12 percent , limiting the capacity of dealers in buying foreign currency using the naira dealers purchased at a discount.
The naira weakened the most in a month due to the fact that the CBN sold the lowest volume of dollars at an auction in more than three years.
From the CBN data there is a positive development that the nation’s foreign exchange reserves has increased 29 percent to $42.67 billion as of October 31, this year.