Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), said that the naira had the potential to improve in value due to favourable economic factors.
Gwadabe made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
He said that the global fall in the dollar and efforts made by government to stabilise production output had encouraged the current stability of the currency with hope of an improvement within the year.
“There have been certain factors that have caused the performance of the naira to be favourable in the last week and we expect an improvement as the year goes on.
“The drastic decrease in the level of importation, increase in the nation’s external reserves and improvement in production output have played a favourable role in the stabilisation of the currency.
“The increase in output has been achieved by the efforts made by the government in stabilising the issues of the Niger-Delta.
“However, there has been a global fall in the demand for the dollar due to the unfavourable political conditions in the United States of America.
“These factors have helped the naira to remain stable against the dollar at the major segments of the forex market’’.
He also added that there had been measures put in place to control the value of the naira in the parallel markets.
“At the parallel market, the naira is exchanged at N495 to a dollar while at the Bureau De Change (BDC) the naira is trading at about N385 to a dollar.
‘’There is currently a Liquidity challenge being faced in the market and this has caused the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to take further measures to protect the Naira.
“The CBN has made room for more International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) to be licensed for trade and operation within Nigeria which will aid liquidity.
“With the IMTOs, large dollar inflows can be targeted from Nigerians in Diaspora which will help stabilise the economy.
“There have also been regulations put in place to control the rate of exchange in the parallel market and those who fail to abide by the regulations would be dealt with.
“There have been accusations of certified traders giving money to traders in the parallel market to sell at a higher rate on their behalf but those are just accusations.
“Nobody has been found wanting yet but anyone found wanting will definitely be dealt with by the ABCON and the CBN.
“The association continues to embark on sensitisation campaigns so as to ensure that our members operate by the rules,” he said. (NAN)
BOMA/ GOM/ MZA