After gaining value on Monday on the back of banks’ refusal to accept dollar deposits, the pressure on the naira resumed yesterday at the black market, selling at N225 to the dollar.

The value of the naira had appreciated to N215 to the greenback, up from N240 which it sold earlier last week.

The currency was priced at N325 to the British Pound yesterday, down from N315 which it sold to the English currency on Monday.

On the official interbank market, the naira traded at N198.36 to the dollar while he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rate was stable at N197. There was concern that the naira gain on the black market would be short-lived, triggering a surge in dollar buying.

A BDC operator, Harrison Owoh, said, “We have seen increased demand for dollars again by some end users taking advantage of the gains recorded in the past few days.”

The naira had weakened on the parallel market to as much as 242 to the dollar, on persistent dollar shortages, after the CBN limited importers’ access to dollars on the official interbank market to buy a wide range of goods in order to save its reserves.

“After the restrictions, importers bought dollars on the unofficial market and deposited them in their bank accounts for transfers abroad,” Aminu Gwadabe, the president of the Bureaux de Change Association of Nigeria, said.

Nigerian banks, last week, stopped accepting cash dollar deposits “due to large speculation on the currency,” the chief executive of First City Monument Bank, Ladi Balogun, explained.

According to Gwadabe, banks are rejecting dollar deposits because they are not able to transfer excess liquidity to their correspondent banks abroad which is restricting importers from using domiciliary accounts.