THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may have succeeded in forcing down escalating exchange rate of the Naira which went up in the parallel market by as much as N180 to N190 against the dollar a fortnight ago, to between N148 and N150 at the end of last week. In the preceding week, the naira sold for N180 and N190 as against the dollar on the Bureau de change, while in the black market, it was all about celebration as dollar exchanged for N190.00.
However, last week, speculators may have got their fingers burnt as the Naira firmed up to between N146 and N148 at the bureau de change while in the black market, it exchanged for between N154 and N157. Before now, the CBN has only succeeded in stabilising the exchange rate in the official market with rate at the parallel market still high, thereby creating room for arbitrage.
However, with the daily supply of dollar in the inter bank market, the Naira may be on its way to stabilization. 
In mid-January, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, the CBN governor, in a special media briefing laid the worsening downward spin of naira at the doorsteps of speculators accusing them of ‘stock pilling foreign exchange to sell at a higher rate’. Aware of this strategy of speculators, Soludo admitted that some speculators have already made a kill, ‘warning that the naira will eventually stabilize and they will get their fingers burnt’.
Describing most of the requests for dollars as frivolous and mostly characterised by speculative tendencies, the CBN says, it would strategise to make sure that only effective demand is met by the apex bank.