To support the currency, Nigeria’s central bank sold dollars to retail exchange bureaux on Thursday for 1,450 naira.
It claimed that anomalies in the retail market were fueling parallel markets and increasing the country’s exchange rate premium.
On Thursday, the naira fell to a new low of 1,640 per dollar, which was also the price it was trading at on the black market.
On the official market, it fell to 1,612.50 naira on Wednesday, marking a four-month low, according to LSEG statistics.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has observed the continued distortions in the retail end of the market, which is feeding into the parallel market and further widening the exchange rate premium,” it stated in a circular.
To accommodate the demand for invisible transactions, the CBN has authorized the selling of foreign exchange (FX) to qualified bureau de change (BDC).
The amount that needs to be sold to every BDC is $20,000.
