Naira closes 387/$1 at parallel market

The Nigerian currency, the Naira on Wednesday was steady at 387 to a dollar at the unofficial foreign exchange market.

At the official market, the naira closed at 305.90 against the US dollar, but at the interbank segment, the local currency, settled at 313.50 per dollar, the pound and Euro were traded at 401.75 and 341.08, respectively.

The local currency, at the parallel market also relapsed slightly against the pound and Euro, exchanged at 495 and 420 against 490 and 415 sold on Tuesday.

Advertisement

The naira, at the end of trading on the previous trading day steady at 387 to a dollar, which was a lightly depreciation from the 385 traded on the first trading day of the week.

The local currency on Monday rose to 385 per dollar in the parallel market even as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) injected another $246.2 million into the foreign exchange market.

A survey of the parallel market revealed that the parallel market exchange rate which closed on Friday at N385 per dollar, dropped to N382 per dollar due to expectation of dollar sales to Bureaux de change (BDCs) by the CBN.

Advertisement

Meanwhile, the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold $25 million on Tuesday in its first day of offering foreign exchange to investors and exporters, it said in a statement.

The central bank also sold $96.37 million in currency forwards at an auction, it said, part of its effort to narrow the spread between official and black market exchange rates and improve foreign exchange liquidity.

The central bank has been intervening in the official market to try to narrow the spread between the official and unofficial markets and has sold about $4 billion since February, analysts say, a pace they doubt it can sustain.