Naira slides 0.5% to N581/$1 at parallel market
Nigerian naira traded at N581 per dollar yesterday at the parallel section of the foreign exchange market.
The figure is lower by N3 or 0.5 percent from the N578 it traded last week.
Bureaux De Change operators (BDCs), popularly known as “abokis”, who spoke to newsmen in Lagos, said one dollar exchanged for N581 at the street market.
The traders put the buying price of the dollar at N575 and the selling price at N581, leaving a N6 profit margin.
Since the suspension of trading information by abokiFX — citizens have resorted to street traders for the current parallel market rates of the local currency.
A parallel market (street market) is characterised by noncompliant behaviour with an institutional set of rules.
But the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has consistently maintained that the parallel market represents less than one percent of foreign exchange (FX) transactions and should never be used to determine Nigeria’s naira/dollar exchange.