Nigeria’s central bank made no dollar to naira trades on the interbank
market on Thursday but settled $13.6 million of trades made on previous
days at about the naira’s pegged rate of 197.5 per dollar, an official
said.
The central bank said on Wednesday it would begin
open-market foreign currency trading next week, abandoning its
16-month-old peg against the dollar and setting the stage for the
Nigerian currency to fall sharply.
Dealers said they expected no interbank currency market activity until the new trading regime starts on Monday.
“Central
bank is not selling any money. Those who want to trade can do that
among themselves,” the official said, referring to the volumes as
“carryover trades” agreed but not settled before Wednesday’s
announcement.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude exporter, has
resisted devaluing its currency for more than a year even though other
major oil producers, including Russia, Kazakhstan and Angola, have
allowed their currencies to fall as crude prices plunged.
Currency
traders were meeting on Thursday to discuss the new rules and will seek
to determine trading spreads including circuit breakers, if any, they
say.
“The rules are just a guideline. The practicality is totally different so people are holding on until Monday,” one trader said.
Three
economists estimated the fair value of the naira at between 280 and 300
against the dollar, although the black market rate is around 370.