Illicit dollar (cash) traffic to Dubai is the key factor that has been frustrating the efforts of the government in firming naira.
This was the revelation of the President of the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, who added that the steady traffic by enemies of the economy which had been elusive to security operatives at the airports is the main threat to the naira.
While stressing in an interview that the illegal evacuation had been very consistent from Nigeria to Dubai, Gwadabe added that currency speculators would stop at nothing to make nonsense of the gains the naira had made against the dollar at the foreign exchange market in Nigeria.
He revealed further that huge sums of dollars go through the nation’s boarders illegally, creating artificial dollar scarcity in Nigeria, saying “Hawala activities, where the naira is traded abroad and create frivolous demand for the dollar, is still a threat to naira stability.”
According to him, the naira had remained stable in the local market exchanging between N360 and N365 to the dollar in the past five months due to the watchful efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Gwadabe dismissed reports that the naira was traded for as low as N369 to the dollar at the parallel market, describing it as the handiwork of speculators.
He said that currency speculators were bent on distorting the market to mitigate the effects of their losses arising from the appreciation of the naira against the dollar.
