The Naira exchanged at N708/$1 at the parallel market on Monday, representing a 0.43% fall compared to N705/$1 recorded as of the close of trade last week Friday.
According to information for black market traders, the Naira also depreciated at the cryptocurrency peer-to-peer (P2P) FX market, trading at a minimum of N713.67/$1 on Monday morning.
The P2P exchange rate indicated that the Nigerian national currency depreciated by a 0.025% when compared with its exchange value of N713.49/$1 at the same time on Friday.
It would be recalled that the Naira appreciated slightly against the US dollar at the official market to close at N436.25/$1 on Friday, from N436.33/$1 that it traded in the previous trading session.
The opening indicative rate closed at N434.67/$1 on Friday, as against N434.75 recorded in the previous session.
According to official data on the day’s trading, the Naira recorded the highest exchange rate of N437/$1 during intra-day trading before it settled at N436.25/$1 compared with the lowest exchange rate at N434.5/$1 it traded during intra-day trading.
In the day under review, a total of $46.17 million in FX value was traded in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, representing 60.94% lower than $118.2 million that exchanged hands the preceding day.
Over the months, the nation’s foreign reserve has been on a downward trend due a combination of external and domestic macroeconomic factors, including the changing pattern of foreign trade, institutional changes in the economy and structural shifts in production, amongst others.
In furtherance of its monetary policy measures to stabilize the Naira exchange rates, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has for the past few years continued to supply foreign currencies, especially the US dollar, to the official forex market.
For instance, figures provided by the apex bank on its interventions in the Forex market indicated that it injected $3.36 billion into the market in December 2021 and January this year as part of its efforts to ensure the national currency
The apex bank’s January monthly report on ‘Foreign Exchange Market Developments’ showed that $1.71 billion and $1.65 billion were injected in December 2021 and January 2022 respectively.
The report stated: “Total foreign exchange sales to authorised dealers by the Bank was $1.65bn in January, representing a decrease of 3.1 per cent, relative to $1.71bn in December 2021.
“A breakdown shows that foreign exchange sales at the Small and Medium Enterprises window, interbank/invisible foreign exchange sales and matured swaps contracts rose by 24.4 per cent, 25.9 per cent, and 60.8 per cent to $0.14bn, $0.18bn and $0.21bn, respectively, in January, relative to the amount in December 2021.
“However foreign exchange sales to the Investors and Exporters and Secondary Market Intervention Sales windows fell by 13.7 per cent and 16.3 per cent to $0.58bn and $0.54bn, respectively, in the month under review.”
