Nigeria’s benchmark stock index dropped 0.7 percent on Tuesday, as President Muhammadu Buhari takes the lead in the 2019 presidential election result against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, his main challenger.
Investors have expressed preference for Abubakar who contested against the incumbent Buhari on liberalized economy.
The drop in the Nigerian stock market is seen as a reaction against Buhari lead in the election results, analysts say.
Buhari is leading in the margin of 53 percent against Atiku’s 43 percent of the votes announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian central bank said it has injected the sum of $210million into the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market.
The bank said on Tuesday that it offered authorized dealers in the wholesale segment of the market the sum of $100million, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment received the sum of $55million.
“Similarly, customers requiring foreign exchange for invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), among others, were also allocated the sum of $55million,”
Isaac Okorafor, the bank’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, said in a written statement.
