The naira Tuesday slid further at the parallel market in spite of the clampdown the federal government ordered on foreign exchange market speculators.
Bureau De Change (BDC) hubs were raided in Abuja, Lagos and Kano and some operators were arrested.
Despite the raids, however, the naira plunged further with a dollar exchanging for 1,900 in Abuja and Kano, and N1,800 in Lagos; while the British Pound was exchanged for N2,250.
However, at the official market, the naira recorded a marginal gain closing at N1,551.24 as against the earlier N1,574.62, according to the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
Acting on the NSA’s directive, the security operatives swooped on the streets of Lagos, Abuja and Kano yesterday to raid unlicensed BDC operators.
The National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, had earlier on Tuesday directed operatives of the Nigeria Police Force, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to clamp down on forex market speculators.
This, he said, was a concerted effort to safeguard Nigeria’s foreign exchange market and combat the activities of speculators, both domestic and international, operating through various channels.
Towards this, at the popular Allen Avenue in Lagos, about five BDC operators were reportedly arrested when the EFCC operatives stormed the area around 10am.
Many of the unlicensed operators transacting by the road fled on sighting the security operatives.
