The Naira crashed to N480 to the dollar to reach its lowest ever rate against the American dollar as it dropped further from N460 on Wednesday.
This is the worst rate that the currency has been at since the introduction of floating foreign exchange policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in June.
Economists have pointed towards the anticipated return of transfer of dollars abroad by Travelex through the Bureau De change (BDCs) for the massive drop in value to the Naira.
The arrangement introduced by CBN last year to facilitate the transfer of money outside the country for payment of students’ school fees has faced serious problems.
“There is no bank dispensing dollars to the BDCs for that purpose. The BDCs’ accounts were debited by some banks since Monday and they are not able to pay any of the BDCs so far debited. This is really sending a bad signal in the market,” a BDC operator said.
The plummeting of the naira contradicts the statement made by Kemi Adeosun, minister of Finance, that Nigeria is almost gone out of recession, as things don’t look to be getting better.
According to Adeosun, Nigeria was already getting out of recession as the federal government had taken steps that were in the best interest of the citizens.
