Article Summary
- The Central Bank of Nigeria has denied reports claiming that it has devalued the naira to N631/$1
- The apex bank said the exchange rate at the Investors’ & Exporters’ (1&E) window traded as of June 1, 2023, at N465/US$1.
- The report of devaluation alluded to the plans by President Bola Tinubu to end the current multiple exchange rate regime
The Central Bank of Nigeria has debunked reports claiming that the apex bank has devalued the naira to N631/$1.
Reacting to the publication by Daily Trust, the CBN via its Twitter handle described the report as ‘fake news.’ “The CBN did not devalue the Naira,” the bank had tweeted with the image of the publication attached.
Shortly after, the apex bank also released a short statement to debunk the claim. According to the statement, the exchange rate at the Investors’ & Exporters’ (1&E) window traded this morning (June 1, 2023) at N465/US$1 and has been stable around this rate for a while.
The statement
The CBN in the statement signed by its Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Dr. Isa AbdulMumin, said:
- “The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to a news report by Daily Trust Newspaper of June 1, 2023, titled “CBN Devalues Naira To 630/$1”.
- “We wish to state categorically that this news report, which in the imagination of the newspaper is exclusive, is replete with outright FALSEHOODS and destabilizing innuendos, reflecting potentially wilful ignorance of the said medium as to the workings of the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market.
- “For the avoidance of doubt, the exchange rate at the Investors’ & Exporters’ (1&E) window traded this morning (June 1, 2023) at N465/US$1 and has been stable around this rate for a while.
- “The public is hereby advised to ignore the news report by Daily Trust in its entirety, as it is speculative and calculated at causing panic in the market.”
The CBN advised media practitioners to verify their facts from the Central Bank of Nigeria before publishing in order not to misinform the public.
Backstory
Daily Trust in its exclusive report published on Thursday, had claimed that “at the resumption of the weekly bidding for foreign exchange, the apex bank sold the spot rate to banks on behalf of their customers at N631 to a dollar and most bidders got the full amount they requested.”
The report also cited President Bola Tinubu’s inaugural speech, in which he spoke about having a unified exchange rate.
However, it appears the report misunderstood the intra-day high spot rates at the Investor & Exporter window where the dollar is sold officially. Nairametrics reported on May 27th, 2023 that the exchange rate at the official I&E window sold for as high as N632/$1.
The official rate closed at N464.67/$1 on Thursday, May 31 2023 while the intra-day high was also N467/$1 on the same day.
