Naira gains 30 points in five days, sells at 495/$1

The nation’s currency, the Naira on Thursday appreciate further to record a total gain of 30 points, closing at N495 against N525 sold last Friday at the parallel market.

Business Times, however, observed that since the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced the new foreign exchange policy actions, the Nigerian currency has appreciated significantly on the parallel market.

For instance, the dollar tumbled from N525 exchange rate on the first trading day of the week to 516 exchanged on Tuesday and strengthened further on Wednesday to record a total gain of 11 points, closing at N505at the unofficial market rate.

There are strong indications that foreign currency speculators who had held on to the dollar for several weeks rushed to sell off the currency in the wake of renewed confidence in the CBN’s ability to meet demand on the interbank market. Hence, the buy rate of the greenback crashed on the parallel market yesterday to below N490 to the dollar.

This is just as the chief executive of Economic Associates Limited, Dr. Ayo Teriba, urged the central bank not to relent in its efforts to rebuild foreign reserves to at least $36 billion that can cover nine months of imports, in order to close the gap between the interbank and parallel market rates.

Also, global ratings agency, Fitch Ratings yesterday said the new policy actions announced by the CBN, might ease some of the severe foreign currency liquidity pressure faced by banks in the country.