The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria said that as of Tuesday, the Bureau De Change operators were buying dollars at N980/$ at the open market and selling at N1, 020/$.
This was confirmed by the President of ABCON, Aminu Gwadabe while featuring on a live television programme, where he stated that the naira has appreciated faster than expected against the United States Dollar.
Gwadabe applauded the government and the Central Bank of Nigeria for its efforts so far, saying it’s the first time in the last 15 years that the exchange rate for the dollar in the parallel market is less than that at the official window.
He acknowledged that there is now calmness in the market as speculation which has been one of the major destabilization factors is no longer there.
“Our quote rate is N980 and we sell at N1, 020 as of now,” he said.
On what was responsible for the continuous appreciation of the naira, he said, ‘’Well, it’s a long journey, it did not start today, there are many factors, a combination of those factors that helped in achieving this, even though it happened faster than expected. So, I want to congratulate the management of the Central Bank for the first time in history over the past 15 years we have never seen where the open market is lower than the CBN rate.
“So, kudos to the Central Bank, and congratulations Nigerians, there is calmness now, we have not been seeing speculation coming into the market which hitherto has been one of the albatrosses that is keeping the naira under pressure.
“What you are seeing now is to show that what happened before has no economic fundamentals, it’s just a bubble and the bubble has burst.
“So, this happened with some stringent concerted policies, stress test policies that started with the unification of the market, it came with a mixture of feelings, a lot of disequilibrium, and however, it has finally achieved its objectives of convergence. All is to converge the exchange rate so that we can have a single market, so congratulations to the presidency also for achieving this fiat convergence.’’
