Domiciliary Account Holders Smile To Bank As Naira Continues Free Fall
Fred Omotara, Lagos
Nigerians who saved in dollars at the start of 2022 are now having too much Naira with them, kadecommunicationng can reliably confirm.
Anybody who had $1000 in his or her domiciliary accounts by the start of 2022 should have N155,000 as profit following the fall of the Naira to N720/$1 as at Monday, 1st of August, 2022.
As of December 31, 2021, the exchange rate at the parallel market closed at about N565/$1.
However, the incessant fall of the naira in recent months has seen the exchange rate fall to a whopping N720/$1 in the black market at the time of writing.
The massive depreciation of the currency over the last 7 months has made those who took a bet on the naira earlier in the year rich when they convert their dollar savings to naira.
This includes Nigerians with savings in domiciliary accounts, investment trading apps, cryptocurrency wallets, bonds, or any investments that are denominated in US dollars.
Data from the CBN indicates the total amount of dollars deposited into domiciliary accounts of Nigerian banks as of December 2021 is an estimated $20 billion.
That amount was classified as N8.5 trillion by the CBN using its official exchange rate and would have been worth N11.3 trillion on the black market.
That amount is now worth N14.4 trillion in the same market assuming the exchange rate of N720/$1.