Nigeria’s central bank warns speculators,

NIGERIA’S central bank vowed to fight off speculators taking bets that the naira would be devalued after Kazakhstan became the latest country to abandon control of its currency.

“We haven’t seen any reason so far to institute a change in the foreign exchange policies,” Ugochukwu Okoroafor, a spokesman for the Central Bank of Nigeria, said yesterday.

“The preponderance of foreign currency in the country has led to speculative attacks on the naira. People who have done it in the hope we’ll devalue will be hurt,” he said.”

After imposing trading restrictions in February to prevent dollars from fleeing Africa’s largest economy, importers have been unable to pay suppliers, a thriving black market has sprung up in foreign banknotes and a collapse in government oil revenue amid sliding crude prices has left teachers unpaid.

Reconsidering fixed exchange rates is becoming more urgent also as the US Federal Reserve moves closer to raising interest rates for the first time since 2006, which has throttled demand for riskier assets.

The naira’s exchange rate needed to strike a balance between Nigeria’s dependence on oil for export earnings and the country’s need to import most of its goods, Okoroafor said. The currency, which has remained below 200 naira to the dollar since mid-May, weakened 0.7 percent to 199.05 naira by 12.29pm in Lagos yesterday.

Genuine demand for foreign exchange would be met by the central bank, “but once it comes as a result of speculation, we’ll fight back”, Okoroafor said. – Bloomberg