Nigeria’s Importation business suffering over widening exchange rate, importers lament

The Naira slid to N610 to a dollar over the weekend at the parallel market in Lagos and Abuja, thus widening the gap between the official and parallel market exchange rates to N191. This is even as importers lamented on Monday that the widening exchange rate between the official and parallel market is going to further affect importation business as this is affecting the purchasing power of many importers.

Recall that the official exchange rate of the currency is N419.02 to the dollar at the close of business on Friday.

According to bureau de change sources, the recent rise in the exchange rate of dollar at the black market is due to heightened political activities as the political parties will hold their primary elections this week. It is believed that many politicians seeking election use dollars to ‘settle’ delegates to vote for them.

For Importers who source their forex from the parallel market, they are complaining about the high exchange rate, stating that it would affect the volume of importation into the country.

President of the Nigerian Importers Integrity Association (NIIA), Godwin Onyekazi, said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has refused to sell Dollars to importers through the official exchange window.

“The continuous slide of the Naira against the Dollar is killing importation. Already, the level of importation at the ports have slumped drastically. This has reflected in the very low volume of work for haulage companies and clearing agents at the ports.

“With the Naira sliding to N610, the high exchange rate will further reduce Importation because it is eroding the purchasing power of many importers.

“Maybe if the CBN is selling Dollars to importers through the official exchange window, that would have helped; but the CBN is not selling Dollars to importers through the official exchange window, and this is not good for business,” President of the Nigerian Importers Integrity Association (NIIA), Godwin Onyekazi lamented.

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