What is happening?!
The naira has hit a new low against the dollar in the black market. A Nigerian
currency trader says: "It sold for N241 to a dollar on Monday, as importers
banned from accessing hard currency at the official interbank market by the
central bank three weeks ago scramble for hard currency in the unofficial
market"
Another reason for the sharp decline in Naira is due to the low oil prices and
government finances.
Nigerian stocks also fell to a more than three-month low and the Naira hit
another record low on the parallel market on Monday, as central bank
restrictions fed unofficial trade in dollars, traders said.
The local bourse, which has the second-biggest weighting after Kuwait on the
MSCI frontier market index, dropped for the ninth consecutive day as investors
shed banking, consumer and oil shares.
Sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest stock index closed down 0.32 percent on
Monday, 11.5 percent lower than its 2015 peak, hit on April 2 having soared
12.2 percent in the two sessions after Muhammadu Buhari won a closely-
fought presidential election.
The index of Nigeria’s top 10 consumer goods stocks declined 1.15 percent on
Monday, weighing on the all-share index. The top decliners were Flour Mills ,
Honeywell Flour Mills and Union Bank , all down more than 4.9 percent each.
The central bank has said it would not be focusing on the thinly-traded parallel
market when determining the exchange rate, adding that people preferred to use
the unofficial market for undocumented transactions.
