Nigeria’s currency, the Naira, depreciated against the US dollar in its exchange rate on Friday to trade at an average of N746/$1 at the black market, representing a dip in value by 0.13% from N745/$1 that was recorded in the previous trading session.
Some BDC traders at the Federal Capital Territory spoken with by our correspondent rued the sustained devaluation of the local currency in the market, blaming the ugly trend on what one of them, Muhammad, termed “lack of interest by investors to do business with us now because they want the new government to come in before buying dollars.”
However, the Naira’s exchange rate remained stable against the Euro, trading at N810/€1 on Friday, the same rate it traded during the previous day’s trading.
Interestingly, the Naira rebounded in its exchange rate with the British Pound Sterling by 0.21% to trade at an average of N933/£1, compared to N935/£1 it traded the preceding day.
The Naira could not muster the value-addition momentum recorded in its exchange rate with the Pound Sterling at the Cryptocurrency Peer-to-Peer (P-2-P) Exchange market as it depreciated to trade at a minimum of N749.50/$1, representing an 0.23% drop from N747.75/$1 it exchanged at during the previous trading session.
Data from the unofficial FX market indicated that the Naira opened the year at an average rate of N736/$1 in the parallel market, recorded its strongest exchange rate at N775/$1 on 20th February 2023 and its lowest exchange value at N730/$1 on 5th January 2023.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has over the past years been supplying dollars to FX traders at the parallel and official window markets to stabilize the local currency’s exchange rate against major foreign currencies.
However, the apex bank suspended its FX support for the parallel market operators sometimes in 2020due to FX round tripping by the BDC dealers and has not reversed its decision since then.
