CBN debunks reports of naira devaluation

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has debunked reports that the apex bank devalued the naira to N631/$1 in an effort to unify the exchange rate.

Newspaper reports on Thursday claimed that the CBN devalued the local currency from N461.6 to N631.00 on the Importer and Exporter (I&E) market segment on Wednesday, following President Bola Tinubu’s announcement of plans to unify the rates.

However, in a statement issued Thursday by the CBN’s Assistant Director, Corporate Communications, Isa AbdulMumin, the bank described such reports as “falsehoods”.

“We wish to state categorically that this news report, which in the imagination of the newspaper is exclusive, is replete with outright FALSEHOODS and destabilising innuendos, reflecting potentially willful ignorance of the said medium as to the workings of the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market,” the statement said.

CBN Has Not Devalued The Naira pic.twitter.com/O9DCB4lQYj

— Central Bank of Nigeria (@cenbank) June 1, 2023

The bank said for the avoidance of doubt, the exchange rate at the Investors’ & Exporters’ (I&E) window traded Thursday morning (June 1, 2023) at N465 per $1 and has been stable around this rate for a while, urging the public to ignore reports stating otherwise.

“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,” the CBN said.

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Earlier on Thursday, PREMIUM TIMES reported that naira fell slightly against the United States dollar on the spot market to trade at N464.67 per $1 local on Wednesday, according to data published by FMDQ, where forex rates are collated and traded officially showed.

However, the domestic currency gained significantly at the parallel market within the same period to trade at N740.00 per $1 against the range of N750 and above it was trading last week.