Currency crash: CBN Governor meets with bank chiefs today

The local currency, on Wednesday, tumbled to a new record low of N202 against the United States dollar at the interbank segment of the foreign exchange market, a situation dealers attributed to the postponement of the elections.Analysts believe that the case of  currency which has hit record low this week has been exacerbated by the shift in polls   from February 14 and 28 to March 28 and April 11, which has fuelled apprehension of foreign investors.

The fear that the elections may not hold at all or turn violent has made many of the investors to be ultra cautious in the deployment of their resources in the Nigerian economy, with some of them   converting their assets into dollars, thus increasing the demand for foreign exchange and putting pressure on the naira.

The  dollar sold for N210 at the black market  on Tuesday.

The naira crossed a N200 low for the first time on Tuesday, having fallen to N196 against the greenback on Monday, Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $619 million in one month to close at $33.873 billion as at February 5, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) continues to defend the the local currency.

The Rainbow learnt that the meeting would centre on heow to check the excesses of some banks, which have helped to fuel speculative trading on the foreign exchange and other measures to be taken to stabilise the forex market.