24hrs To APC Convention, Dollar Scarcity Hits Harder
Barely 24hrs to APC convention in Abuja, the lingering foreign exchange scarcity in the country has continued to hit harder even as the exchange rate on the parallel market is inching towards N590/$1. Things may worsen even further as electioneering intensifies and since politicians had begun to mop up dollars, driving up the demand.
A Bank manager, who craved anonymity, told Economic confidential that “as of today no single dollars in some banks in Abuja metropolis sell to our customers”.
The Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Company, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, had in January projected that the CBN would devalue the naira by the end of 2022, adding that spending on political campaigns ahead of the 2023 general elections would put more pressure on foreign exchange supply in the Nigerian economy.
The development comes over eight months after the Central Bank of Nigeria stopped the sale of forex to Bureau de Change operators and promised to boost liquidity in commercial banks.
The naira will keep falling because those who need dollars cannot get it and they will patronise the parallel market, increasing demand. It is also one of the fallouts of an election year.
Though an expert warned that the rising cost of production due to the forex shortage would lead to inflation as businesses would be forced to hike the cost of goods. An economist and a senior lecturer of Economics at the Pan Atlantic University, Dr Olalekan Aworinde, said manufacturers would be greatly affected by the issue of dollar scarcity
