Nairametrics| The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has sounded an ominous warning to forex marketers and currency speculators in a radio program yesterday, according to reports from Guardian Newspapers.
Here is how the Guardian reported it;
The CBN had maintained that much of the dollar demand had been a bubble created by speculators and hoarders of the greenback. On a radio programme yesterday, the apex bank had warned market players and keepers of dollars to make hay and sell their holdings to avoid heavy losses.
This comes on the heels of a prediction by the President of Association of Bureau de Change Operators in Nigeria that currency speculators had already lost billions of Naira from the rapid strengthening of the Naira.
The apex bank sold another $180 million yesterday to further boost liquidity in the forex market- $80 million offer for Personal Travel Allowance (PTA), school fees and medicals at the inter-bank market and $100 million Wholesale Forwards Market sell.
This is in continued implementation of the new forex policy unveiled by the apex bank last week in an attempt to close the wide gap between the official exchange rate and that of the parallel market which the CBN had maintained was a result of a bubble created by speculators and hoarders of the dollar.
The sudden increase in liquidity has led to a sharp decrease in the exchange rate in the parallel market with the dollar now selling for N450 as against N525 recording penultimate Friday while the dollar trades for N305.50 at the interbank market. Figures reported yesterday suggest that parallel market rates have dropped further to about N435/$1.