The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has described a news report published today, Thursday by a national newspaper, that it had devalued the Naira as false and urged the public to disregard insinuations to the effect.
The apex bank’s Acting Director, Corporate Communication, Dr. Isa AbdulMumin, made the clarification in a statement titled ‘CBN Has Not Devalued the Naira’.
He stated: “The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to a news report… titled “CBN Devalues Naira To 630/31”.
“We wish to state categorically that this news report, which in the imagination of the newspaper is exclusive, is replete with outright FALSEHOODS and destabilizing innuendos, reflecting potentially willful ignorance of the said medium as to the workings of the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the exchange rate at the Investors’ & Exporters’ (I&E) window traded this morning (June 1, 2023) at N465/US$1 and has been stable around this rate for a while.
The apex ban advised the public to ignore the news report in its entirety, saying it’s speculative and calculated at causing panic in the market while also urging journalists to always verify their facts from the Central Bank of Nigeria before publishing in order not to misinform the public.
As part of its efforts to further enlighten the public on its position on the official Naira exchange rate, the CBN tweeted a graphical image with “fake news” to debunk the report by Daily Trust newspaper suggesting that it devalued the Naira.
The newspaper had reported that at the resumption of the weekly bidding for FX, the apex bank sold the spot rate to banks on behalf of their customers at N631/$1.
According to the report, the devaluation of the local currency by the apex bank within 24 hours after the dollar had sold for N461.6 at the Importers and Exporters (I&E) window on Tuesday.
