CBN Plans Digital Currency As Naira Slips To 490/$ At Parallel Market
The naira exchanged to the dollar at N490/$ at the parallel market on Thursday.
According to naijabdcs.com, the official exchange rate website of the Central Bank of Nigeria for the Bureau de Change operators, the country’s currency was bought and sold at N488/490 to the dollar as of Thursday evening.
The naira had earlier exchanged to the dollar at N483 in previous week.
The CBN recently adopted the the NAFEX Investor & Exporter forex window rate of N410.25 as its official exchange rate to the dollar.
It confirmed this new official rate on its website on Monday night, after it had removed N379/$.
It would be recalled that in April 2017, the CBN established the I&E forex window as part of efforts to deepen the foreign exchange market and accommodate all forex obligations.
The purpose of the window was to boost liquidity in the forex market and ensure timely execution and settlement for eligible transactions.
Also, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has said that digital currencies have a place in the country.
He made this known during the 279th Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja.
Emefiele said, “We are committed in the CBN and I can assure everybody that digital currency will come to life even in Nigeria.”
This revelation by the CBN aligns with the trend in developed nations in the world. The central banks of China, South Korea, the United States, and a host of other countries are in the process of launching their own digital currencies also.
Raising concerns about cryptocurrencies, Emefiele said, “We have carried out our investigation and we found out that a substantial percentage of our people are getting involved in cryptocurrency which is not the best. Don’t get me wrong, some may be legitimate but most are illegitimate.
“Under cryptocurrency and Bitcoin, Nigeria comes second while in the global side of the economy, Nigeria comes 27th. We are still conducting our investigation and we will make our data available.”
Since the CBN’s ban on cryptocurrencies, peer-to-peer trading has increased greatly. Paxful, crypto trading platform, recently announced that Nigerians had traded $1.5bn to become its biggest market.
In a February 7, 2021 circular, the CBN had said, “First, in light of the fact that they are issued by unregulated and unlicensed entities, their use in Nigeria goes against the key mandates of the CBN, as enshrined in the CBN Act (2007), as the issuer of legal tender in Nigeria.”
