Nigerian currency traders detained as naira values surge to 1,416/$
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission reportedly detained a few Bureau de Change operators on Tuesday in the well-known Wuse Zone 4 market.
Additionally, dealers said that during a sting operation, several BDC operators refused to be arrested.
To clean the street trader market and stop arbitrary trading, the operatives had started regular raids.
However, on Tuesday this action was opposed, resulting in gunfire and vehicle damage for the operatives. Witnesses to the event, two currency brokers, gave press their confirmations.
One of the dealers, who preferred to be nameless out of concern about reprisals, said they were just acting out of annoyance at how often they were being arrested and to take money from them.
“EFCC guys came to raid and make an arrest on Monday, and they came today (Tuesday), but today’s operation was too strong,” he claimed.
“This is the problem we have. They captured traders yesterday, Monday, but today they opened fire on our workers for trying to thwart the arrest. Frustrated and irritated, they were. Their increasing weariness and desperation were evident today when they even damaged the EFCC trucks’ panes.
An additional trader verified the occurrence and issued a warning that a protracted investigation by the anti-corruption agency could result in fatalities.
“If this situation persists, it implies that they will murder individuals,” the trader said, requesting anonymity as well.This is because people would gather to stop any arrests if they tried to make one in the future because nobody would give their permission.”
Such incident occurred today. People are turning these days as all they do after being arrested is demand money from us. Nothing further gets done. Use of them is annoying.
The EFCC was back at raiding to try and stabilise the naira.
The commission detained more than 35 accused currency speculators for alleged foreign exchange fraud over the penultimate week.
It also paraded more than 20 BDC operators detained in the capital city last week.
Notwithstanding all of these initiatives, the naira has kept falling.
Regarding rates, the operators said they made a profit of N25 after purchasing the dollar for N1,400 and selling it for N1,425.
It further showed a N5 drop from the N1,430 it sold on Monday.
Malam Yahu, a trader, bemoaned the market swings, saying it was now hard to forecast where the rates will trade.
We are especially apprehensive about buying now since the market is just swinging and the naira is not stable at all, he said. Not even the direction of market movement is predictable.
For instance, I didn’t buy or sell anything following today’s arrest to prevent losing money. I paid N1,400 for it earlier today, and I got N1,425.
“They expect the naira to drop further, so once prices go up, there will be scarcity; but, if it’s at a loss, they rush to sell it off.”
The currency declined to N1,416/$ at the official market from N1,354/$ reported at the foreign exchange market on Monday, according to data retrieved from the FMDQ exchange securities.
Concerning sharp swings, the revised rate showed that the naira fell by 4.4 percent, or N62.
Tuesday’s intraday high was N1,445 compared to Monday’s N1,441/$1 recorded. The intraday low dropped from N1,285/$1 on Monday to N1,301/$1.
Still, from $84.3 million on Monday, the amount of money contributed by interested buyers and sellers rose to $160.77 million.
With daily turnover of $66.4 million on February 19, 2024, the previous rate was the lowest in about ten weeks.