The foreign exchange traders at the popular WAPA Forex Market in Kano have limited the period of time for buying and selling of currency in the market to only six hours as a way of boosting the value of Naira.
The marketers have imposed a six-hour limited time for buying and selling of currencies in the market which begins at 12 pm and ends at 6 pm daily.
Explaining the purpose for taking this measure, the chairman of the forex market, Alhaji Sani Dada, said it has become pertinent to initiate such a measure due to several reasons that include scarcity of dollars.
He announced that this measure has since raised the value of Naira which has moved from N1,537 per Dollar to N1,400 per dollar thereby making the naira to appreciate by over N100.
“No, it’s not true, we are not on strike, we are not public employees that would go on strike to protest some government decisions. What we have done is that we have reduced the period of time for transactions in the market.
“This is necessitated by the way some customers delay transactions due to available time. But now that the time is limited they will hurriedly come and make their transactions and make the market more active.
“This will also provide an opportunity for those who trade forex to strike their deals in good time. There is scarcity of Dollars in the market that is why we have to reduce the period of transaction.
“However, it should be noted that our forex market here does not sell only Dollars, we also sell other foreign currencies. As such we cannot shut down our activities because of the scarcity of Dollars.
“People come from neighbouring countries to this market to change their currency and enter the markets to buy goods. Hence, if we close down our forex market it will be as if we have closed down businesses in Kano markets.
“We will now open our market by 12 pm and close by 6 pm daily until further notice. By this we are letting the public know that these are our operating periods.”
Speaking on how this move would affect the market, the chairman explained that the step has been very effective to have even forced the price of Dollar down.
