Despite starting the day at N675/$1, the exchange rate between the Naira and the US dollar on Wednesday fell beyond the N710/$1 threshold on the black market.
The Naira has been under immense pressure in the past two weeks, falling from an average of N618 to a dollar recorded two weeks ago.
In the same vein, some bank users who have FX in their domiciliary accounts revealed that they have not been able to withdraw their funds from the bank due to tightened liquidity.
It will be recalled that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, had a year ago banned the sale of FX to BDCs citing the illegal sale as the reason behind its decision. At that time, the exchange rate was about N501/$1 with $33 billion in the country’s FX reserves.
Prior to the ban, BDC operators were a major black market, providing exchange rate support to those who could not formally access foreign currencies directly from the CBN.
