Naira gains at NAFEX, drops further at official FX market
Stabilises at 365/$1 at parallel market
The Nigerian currency, Naira, on Thursday, rebounded at the Nigeria Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) window, while surprisingly fell further at the official foreign exchange market.
The naira, however, stabilized at 365 per dollar the rate it has been trading since last week at the NAFEX, but closed at 359.70 to the dollar against 360.39 exchanged on Wednesday.
The autonomous FX window began yesterday trading activities at 358.97 per dollar, representing a growth rate of 0.28 per cent, while compared to 359.96 stood the previous day.
But the NAFEX window dropped a total turnover of $95.33 million, while comparing yesterday traded figure of $100.33 from $195.00 stood on Wednesday.
However, the Africa’s largest economy currency fell further at the official foreign exchange market, to close at 305.95 against 305.90 sold on Wednesday and N305.85 traded on Tuesday. This was even as the official Forex market lifted by fresh $250m earlier in the week by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
At the parallel market, the naira remained steadied at 365 to the dollar after relapsed by a point on Wednesday, however, better than 370 traded a week ago.
The naira, strengthened against the pound sterling at 470 compared 472 it did the day earlier, but left unchanged at 432 against the euro, even though it was weaker than Tuesday closing rates of N470 and N430 traded respectively at the unofficial market.
The naira, at the bureau de change (BDC) window saw the naira closing at N362 to the dollar, while the pound sterling and the euro traded at N470 and N430.
Meanwhile, the apex bank in the country has continued to inject more foreign exchange into the local market to inflate the value of the green back.
On Tuesday, the new Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for the second quarter of 2017, showed that the Africa’s largest economy exited from its worst recession in 29 years, and the CBN and some experts have linked the economic growth to the success recorded in the nation’s foreign exchange system, comparing over N500 to a dollar exchanged earlier in the year before creation of NAFEX window and other forex windows in February, 2017.
financial analysts have swiftly called on the Federal Government to go into privatization of its major sectors, while continued with capital growth projects, so as to sustain economic recovery rate.
Meanwhile, figures obtained from the CBN indicated that the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) segment of the market received the highest intervention this week with a total of $100 million, small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) window received a boost of $80m; while the invisible’s segment, comprising Business/Personal Travel Allowances, school tuition, medicals, etc. was allocated the sum of $70m to meet the demands of customers.
Stories by Motolani Oseni
