The Nigerian Naira suffered a continuous decrease in value in parallel market yesterday March 12, as it exchanged between N405 and N420 to a dollar in some Bureau De Change facilities. President of Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON),Aminu Gwadabe who confirmed the development, blamed it all on the crash in the price of crude oil.
The Central Bank of Nigeria on its own part accused stakeholders in the foreign exchange market of creating panic by stocking up dollars over speculation of the naira being devalued. The apex bank said in its statement;
“These rumours are false, unwarranted and calculated to serve their dubious and selfish ends.
“We have begun a robust and coordinated investigation in collaboration with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and related agencies to uncover the unscrupulous persons and FX dealers who are creating this panic, and the full weight of our rules and regulations will be meted out to them, including, but not limited to, being charged for economic sabotage.”
LIB reported earlier that the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari raised an alarm of Nigeria being out of the crude oil business if the price which is currently plumetting drops to $22.
Mele Kyari who told Nigerians to prepare for tough times even if the price of crude oil in the international market jumps to over $50 from the current $30/barrel, disclosed that the crash in crude oil price was as a result of 12 Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargoes being stranded globally because they have no hub due to the abrupt collapse in demand associated specifically with coronavirus.