Dollar To Naira Black Market Exchange Rate Today
Dollar to Naira exchange rate at the black market today, 3 January is ₦560/$1 buying rate and N565/$1 selling rate according to bureau de change operators in Lagos and Abuja. The ₦560/$1 rate has remained fairly consistent since before Christmas and has maintained the same price on the first working day of 2022.
Last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN took a step towards devaluing the naira when it adopted the official Investors and Exporters (I&E) window rate – the naira jumped from N411.73/$1 which it has been for months to N427/$1 both on Thursday and Friday last week.
What does the official rate mean?
The official rate is the exchange rate approved by the CBN – the Central Bank of Nigeria is the sole regulator of Naira and determines the exchange rate. About 4 months ago, the CBN banned the activities of Bureau DE Change operators and ordered banks to take over the buying and selling of foreign currencies in the country. The CBN is selling FX directly to the banks so they can in turn sell to end users in an attempt to control the price of Forex. The price at which the CBN is selling is called the official rate.
To get the official rate, which is much lower than the parallel market rate, you have to go through the licensed commercial banks in the country. It makes sense to buy at the official rate, but if you are selling you might want to consider the parallel market.
Why do people buy currency at the black market?
People buy currency at the black market because getting currency at the official rate from commercial banks is extremely difficult. The banks also have a limit of $5000 as personal allowance for travellers and $10000 as business travel allowance. Untop of that plenty of paperwork is required and most times some banks simply claim they don’t have foreign currency.
That is if you’re buying, if you’re selling the banks buy your Dollar at #427/1$ while the black market buy same at #569/1$. Selling dollar at the black market for those who earn in Dollars such as bloggers, YouTubers and other freelancers makes more sense as they get a high price.
