In the face of the uncertainties in the economy, bitten and bartered by the lingering recession, the naira now gives many Nigerians some respite. Thanks to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, that has vowed to continue to strengthen the currency with further interventions in the foreign exchange, forex, market.
The apex bank hopes that its interventions would also reduce the gap between the official and parallel market rates. For instance, the naira was exchanged at 385 to the dollar in the black market on Thursday, as against 395  on Wednesday, and 457 last week Thursday. It similarly gained value at the official interbank market, standing at 308 to the dollar, against 306 Thursday last week. This has narrowed the gap between the two market windows to 385 and 308 respectively.
Experts now forsee a further narrowing of the rates at both the interbank and parallel markets in the nearest future. To many of them, a band of 380 to 400 naira to the dollar is achievable as the CBN continues its intervention policy.
Kunle Ezun, an official of Ecobank Nigeria, expects the dollar to sell at 375/380 next week based on continued interventions of the CBN. “It depends on what the CBN is targeting; but the good thing is that when the dollar sells for between 375 and 380, the incentive to do round-tripping will not be there anymore and this is good for the market, the economy and the country,” said Ezun.