The naira traded at 702.19/dollar at the close of business on Thursday, as the Central Bank of Nigeria has allowed for a free float of the national currency against the dollar and other global currencies.
This means that the currency lost about five per cent of its value within 24 hours from the N664.04/dollar recorded at the close of business on Wednesday.
This came as multiple governmental officials revealed that the Central Bank of Nigeria might begin to supply foreign exchange to the market in the coming days.
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KOKO TV reported that the CBN directed Deposit Money Banks to remove the rate cap on the naira at the official Investors’ and Exporters’ Windows of the foreign exchange market.
This came barely two weeks after President Bola Tinubu promised to unify the nation’s multiple exchange rates and less than a week before the suspension and detention of CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, whose unorthodox monetary policies had become a stumbling block to investors and the economy.
The CBN’s decision to float the currency was hailed by the organised private sector and economists who said the move would unify the country’s multiple exchange rates and bring sanitise the FX market
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The development means buyers and sellers of foreign currency in the official FX markets are now allowed to quote rates they find comfortable in the FX market, as against the previous practice where rates were dictated by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
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