The Naira has not been devalued contrary to reports, the apex financial sector regulatory authority, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said.
A rebuttal issued by the CBN spokesperson, Isa AbdulMumin, on Thursday in Abuja read: The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to a news report by Daily Trust Newspaper of June 1, 2023, titled “CBN Devalues Naira To 630/$1”.
“We wish to state categorically that this news report, which in the imagination of the newspaper, is exclusive, is replete with outright FALSEHOODS and destabilizing innuendos, reflecting potentially
wilful ignorance of the said medium as to the workings of the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the exchange rate at the Investors’ & Exporters’ (I&E) window traded this morning (June 1, 2023) at N465/US$1 and has been stable around this rate for a while.
“The public is hereby advised to ignore the news report by Daily Trust in its entirety, as it is speculative and calculated at causing panic in the market.”
In the report, Daily Trust had said the devaluation brought the Naira from about N461.6 to the dollar at the I&E window on Wednesday to N631.
The decision to devalue the national currency, the report said, followed a meeting with the top officials of strategic government institutions, including the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, with the newly sworn-in President, Bola Tinubu, during which the exchange rate crisis in the country was the topic of discussion.
The issue had attracted Tinubu’s attention, who, in his inaugural address to Nigerians on Monday, directed the CBN to work towards a unified exchange rate in the country.
But Daily Trust said its findings at the resumption of the weekly bidding for foreign exchange revealed that the CBN sold the spot rate to commercial banks on behalf of their customers at N631 to the dollar against the prevailing rate of N461.6 to the dollar, indicating the devaluation of the Naira.
Besides, the newspapers said its review of the situation at the parallel market showed prices trending downwards, with the value of the Naira declining from N750 to the dollar in Abuja on Wednesday morning to N745 in the evening in Kano.
