Naira Wins Against the Dollar as CBN and EFCC Goes After BDC Hoarders and Binance

The naira has been continually gaining little by little against the dollar at the official market. On Wednesday, the naira finished more robustly at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) at N1,542.58/$.

Compared with how it closed on Tuesday at N1,551.24/$, it is said that there was an increase of 0.6% compared to the previous day, which finished at 2.9% of the prior day (Monday). It was also said that inflow at the NAFEM rose from $68 million on Monday to $117.32 million, with intraday trading recording a low of N1,701 and a high of N1,100 trading to the dollar.

According to the records, the inflow at the official market increased to $172.14 million, with trading done between N1,755 and N1,050 to the dollar. Analysts said that the official market appreciation will further widen the gap between the official and parallel market rates.

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While at the parallel market, the value declined by over 23% between Monday and Wednesday compared to N1,625, which it sold at the close of business last week. At the parallel market, the value of the naira varied by location, with some traders quoting N2,010 to the dollar while others quoted N1,900 and N1,880 to the dollar.

EFCC and CBN Join Hands to Stop Currency Racketers

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has continued its raid on Bureau de Change operators in the tradition of hoarding dollars. On Monday, it was reported on the news that the intelligence unit intercepted some BDC operators in the Wuse Zone 4 area of Abuja and arrested over 50 illegal operators.

On Wednesday, about seven (7) BDC operators, along with some illegal vendors, were arrested by the operatives of the EFCC in Kano State. They were intercepted at the popular forex exchange WAPA market in the Fagge local government area of Kano State. The news was confirmed by the market chairman, who briefed reporters in Kano following the incident.

Also, Bayo Onanuga, the special adviser to President Tinubu, in his post on X, formerly Twitter, accused Binance, a trading platform, of manipulating the value of the naira. In the post, he said that Binance was now in complete control of deciding the exchange role, which is to be handled by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

“The EFCC and the CBN should move against these platforms trying to manipulate our national currency to Ground Zero. Crypto should be banned in our country, or else this bleeding of our currency will continue unabated.”

The post comes after Binance’s peer-to-peer (P2P) platform for Nigerian users “automatically paused” yesterday after users reported difficulties selling USDT above a specific price.

According to LEADERSHIP, concerns have also been raised that restricting media access on the NAFEX platform is inimical to transparency, as the public would be unable to know the volume of transactions traded and who bought what, which could sometimes be a restraint.