The Presidency is telling people who trade in foreign currency, called forex speculators, to sell their US dollars because the value of the Nigerian Naira is going up.
President Bola Tinubu’s adviser, Bayo Onanuga, said this in a statement on Thursday. He warned speculators to sell their dollars quickly to avoid losing money.
Onanuga mentioned that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had cleared a backlog of $7 billion in foreign exchange transactions. This means that the Naira is expected to become stronger.
According to the CBN, they used an auditing firm called Deloitte Consulting to carefully check these transactions. They only approved legitimate claims, and any suspicious transactions were sent to the authorities for investigation.
The CBN’s efforts to clear the backlog seem to be working because Nigeria’s external reserves, which are the country’s savings in foreign currencies, have increased to $34.11 billion as of March 7, 2024. This is the highest level in eight months.
