The exchange rate for customs duties is now N1,637 to $1, which is lower than last week’s N1,666 per dollar.
The customs exchange rate has been increasing from N1,564 at the start of September to the current rate.
This rise happened even though the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) tried to help the Naira, which has been losing value in September 2024.
Sale of forex on BDCs
The CBN said they would sell another $20,000 to the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators in Nigeria. Last week, the CBN allowed each BDC to buy $20,000 at N1,590 per dollar. BDC operators can then sell this forex to customers but only add a small profit, no more than 1% above the CBN’s rate.
This 1% rule is to keep things fair and stop anyone from making too much money on forex sales.
To buy the $20,000, eligible BDCs must deposit the naira value into their CBN account and show proof of payment along with needed documents at certain CBN branches.
The recent appreciation of the Naira
After the CBN sold $20,000 to BDCs, the Naira’s value increased by about 5.1%. On Thursday, September 26, 2024, the Naira closed at N1,576.10, which is a 5.48% gain from the previous day’s rate of N1,667.52.
Market transactions also increased a lot, from $100.47 million on Wednesday to $334.05 million on Thursday, a rise of 232.5%.
During this time, the Naira’s value went up and down between N1,699.00 and N1,567.00 but settled at N1,576.10 at the end of the day.
The Naira has been trying to regain its value after falling past N1,600 in July due to unstable financial markets. It has been moving between N1,500 and N1,600, hoping to get stronger whenever the dollar gets weaker.
This year, the Naira has lost about 75% of its value, mainly because of high inflation and more people wanting foreign money. However, Nigeria’s foreign reserves grew a little from $36.305 billion at the end of August to $36.730 billion by mid-September.