The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has reduced the exchange rate for import duties collection from N1238.1 to the dollar to N1,147/$. This represents a decline of N91.1 since the last reduction on April 10th April.
The customs exchange rate for duties collection has stayed at N1238/$ for over a week now- the longest it has stayed at a particular rate in recent times.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) through the CBN has consistently fixed the exchange rate to reflect then official market rate on the NAFEM window hence the regular changes in rate.
Strengthening of the naira
The naira in the past one month has strengthened significantly in both in official and parallel market occasioned by the reforms instituted by the CBN. Some of the reforms include; selling USD to BDCs at N1101/$, cash pooling for IOCs which limited the amount of FX they could repatriate immediately and others.
The significant gains in the value of the naira in recent time has made the Analysts at Goldman Sachs predict the naira to be one of the best performing currencies globally.
In an interview, the President of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators (ABCON) stated that BDC operators were buying dollars at N980/$– a figure far below the FX rate on the official window.
Decline in FX reserve
In recent times, many have accused the management of the apex bank for defending the naira with the country foreign reserve on the back of observed declines in the FX reserve.
It was earlier reported that Nigeria’s foreign reserve dropped by over $2 billion in the past one month. According to the report, the FX reserve dropped from $34.45 billion to $32.29 billion- the lowest in about six years.
However, the Governor of the CBN, Yemi Cardoso in an engagement during the World Bank-IMF spring summit noted that the bank does not intend to defend the naira rather the decline in the foreign reserve was due to payment of external debt obligation.
