At the foreign exchange market on Tuesday, May 3, 2022, the pound sterling maintains its lead over the naira, especially, the gap between the official and the black market rates was wide, raising some financial and monetary concerns among financial experts. Below is how it went at the market.
GBP/NGN CBN Exchange Rate
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sells at NGN522.1066 to £1, but over time, some financial watchers have accused Nigeria’s apex bank of putting an unrealistic exchange rate on its official website due to the wider gap between CBN rate and the parallel market.
Bank Exchange Rate
Usually, the commercial banks in Nigeria are the major buyers of forex from the CBN since Bureau De Change operations were removed from the CBN’s list in 2021. The rate is between NGN620 to NGN650.
Note: The GBP/NGN bank rate isn’t the same at all the financial institutions.
GBP/NGN Black Market Rate
The parallel market is Nigeria’s most patronised in accessing forex, though the CBN warns that it’s illegal. But what happens when users’ forex demands can’t be met by the apex bank? They resort to the black market.
And the operators of that sector are raking in millions of naira as profit even as they face a lot of challenges and risks.
At the time of publication Tuesday, May 3, 2022 Pound to Naira was between NGN700 to NGN760, depending on location and ability of buyers and sellers to negotiate.
On the P2P platform, USD/NGN rate is mostly used.
