The naira continued its free for the dollar as it hit a record low of 240 to the dollar at the black market, as the scarcity of the dollar persisted yesterday can revealed.
A trader in Lagos, Shehu Aliyu told Daily Trust Saturday that the unprecedented slump was as a result of the scarcity foreign exchange that hit banks and Bureaux de Change in the key markets of Lagos and Abuja. This is the first time the naira dropped this low against the dollar. On Thursday the naira exchanged at 237 to a dollar before the end of trading yesterday the currency dropped by N3 in Abuja.
Some traders attributed the drop to the new Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy that banned about 41 items from sourcing forex in the local market.Some of the major importers are now scrambling to source dollars by any means which resulted to the scarcity of forex in the markets, dealers said.
Before the CBN fore restriction last month, the naira stabilized at N223/dollar in the black market and N197/dollar at the interbank market.
