CBN denies claims of naira devaluation to N631/$1

By Sodiq Adelakun

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

This came after unverified reports from a newspaper (not Nigerian NewsDirect)  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.

But according to a statement on 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.

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.

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.

Recall that President Bola Tinubu had noted during his inaugural speech of his plans to ensure a unified exchange rate that will “direct funds away from arbitrage into meaningful investment in the plant, equipment and jobs that power the real economy.”