Nigeria: The Naira Versus Dollar 'Oolala' Moment Leaves Everybody In Painful Suspense

On Wednesday, February 24, 2015, Nigerians woke up to the most unlikely news: the Nigerian naira made a sharp upturn in its protracted forex nosedive and jumped to a trading point of N250 to the dollar.

While this is ostensibly good news, it was greeted with mixed feelings: for a very long time, the naira had continued to plunge and on Thursday the previous week, it exchanged for N403 to the dollar in parallel markets. What, then, was responsible for this dramatic turn of wind?

Meanwhile, the great seer, Apostle John Suleman said he 'saw' the naira crashing to N300 to the dollar. Talk about low-hanging fruit.

"Prophesy by Apostle John Suleman, as revealed to him by God..."

Sigh.

The explanation for this, in a nutshell: the Nigerian currency became suddenly firm in the parallel market when retail traders heard about a cut in the official rate and began to buy the local currency. This, it has been reported was because the Nigerian government said it would not devalue its currency.

Super Ubah To The Rescue: 'I'll Make Naira 200 To the Dollar In 30 Days!'

Buhari is Wielding Strong Magick Here, Bringing the Naira To This Point...

In a nutshell, the market is reacting to President Buhari's adamant stance of no devaluation. Aminu Gwadabe, the Acting President of the Association of Bureau de Change of Nigeria (ABCON) has said this is a great stance, yeah, and that he would support Buhari for as long as he continues to stand by the 'no valuation' rule.

Here are the gentleman's words: “like the President indicated recently, since the only significant thing we export is crude oil, devaluation will do more harm to the economy than good."

Hence, "we also say no to further devaluation of the naira!” he finished.

This, Unfortunately, is Disappointing News to Spectators

It has been three days now and it looks like the Nigerian naira is going to continue its new-found bad habit of continued winning.

As Nigeria's naira continues to appreciate, it has suddenly become scarce, much to the inconvenience of Bureau de Change operators who have now raided banks in hopes of finding dollars for this fortuitous exchange.

But! - before the celebrations begin - the Nigerian naira began to weaken on Thursday, barely a day after it performed its heroic cartwheel out of the maw of the beast.

Nigerian traders are beginning to feel the heat.

People who are in the 'know' - or people who claim to be in the know- say that this three-day breath of fresh air is not sustainable by the Nigerian government and that the naira is fated to fall, fall, fall...

Meanwhile...
Nobody seems to be in agreement as to how much the naira sells, or should sell, in the parallel market. Some of the guys at Naija says it is N305 to the naira, which brings us to a 'headachey' day filled with multiple naira figures to the lone dollar.

Spectators are heartbroken, because they predicted that the naira would plummet to a record N500 in the next few days. Poor guys. But who knows? These are still early days.