By Babajide Komolafe
The volume of dollars traded in the Investors and Exporters, I&E, window rose by 24.2 percent to $29.7 billion in the first half of the year, H1’18, from $23.9 billion traded in 2017. Analysis of trading in the window also revealed that average daily transaction rose to $247.5 million in H1’18 from $170.9 million in 2017.
Indication that this trend will persist in the second half of the year, H2’18 emerged last week, as the window recorded 8.5 percent increase in turnover. Financial Vanguard analysis revealed that volume of dollars traded rose to $863.83 million last week from $796.02 million the previous week.
This according to analysts at Afrinvest Limited, reflects investors preference for the I&E as platform for foreign exchange trade. “Although the participation of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, is estimated at 30 percent of the transactions in the window, the increased level of participation to some extent underscores the flexibility of the market as well as investors’ preference of the I&E as the platform for forex deals.
Increased turnover
“This has largely removed the pressures from the parallel market rate which now sometime, trade at a discount to the I&E rate”, they stated in the company’s half year economic review. Notwithstanding the increased turnover, the naira depreciated for the second consecutive week in the window last week.Read more here.
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