Naira’s woes continue, defy new acting CBN governor, Cardoso

 

Naira on Friday maintained a steady fall against the dollar across foreign exchange (FX) market, after Olayemi Cardoso assumed duty as the acting governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Naira fell to an all-time low of N995 per dollar, losing 0.51 percent of its value compared to N990/$1 on Thursday at the parallel market, also known as black market.

With the current exchange rate, naira has year-to-date weakened by 34.82 percent from N738 per dollar at the beginning of the year.

At the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) forex window, Nigeria’s official foreign exchange market, naira depreciated by 1.32 percent as one dollar was quoted at N747.76 on Friday as against N738.00/$1 quoted on Thursday.

The continued naira depreciation has been attributed to strong demand for the greenback. Also, fiscal policies, external trade, and global market trends, including inflation rates, interest rates, policy events, and geopolitical factors, are key influencers affecting the Naira’s performance, according to Stears Africa FX Monitor, a data and intelligence company.

On Thursday, Nigeria’s Central Bank postponed a rate-setting meeting, known as the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) scheduled for Sept 25-26.

A statement from the apex bank on Friday noted that Cardoso, who was recently nominated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, formally assumed duty, in an acting capacity, as the Governor of the CBN, pending his confirmation by the Senate.

This followed the resignation of Godwin Emefiele as Governor of the Central Bank. The statement signed by Isa AbdulMumin, director corporate communications, said the deputy governors designate have also assumed duty, in acting capacities, sequel to the formal resignation of Folashodun Shonubi, Aishah Ahmad, Edward Lametek Adamu, and Kingsley Obiora as deputy governors of the CBN.