Nigeria’s currency, the Naira, sustained its depreciation trend in exchange for foreign currencies at the parallel market on Monday, marginally decreasing by 0.13% to trade at an average of N747/$1, from N746/$1 that it exchanged at during last Friday’s trading session.
Some of the BDC traders at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) linked the local currency’s depreciation to the lingering lull in business activities nationwide.
However, the Naira stabilized in its exchange rate against the Euro during the day, trading at N810/€1, the same rate it has sustained over the past three days’ trading sessions.
The local currency rebounded in its exchange rate against the British Pound Sterling, appreciating by 0.32% to trade at an average of N930/£1 on Monday, compared to the N933/£1 it exchanged at last Friday in the parallel market.
The Naira could not sustain its gain momentum at the Cryptocurrency peer-to-peer (P-2-P) exchange market in the day under review, as it depreciated to trade at a minimum of N754.95/$1, representing an 0.73% drop from N749.50/$1 it traded in the previous trading session.
The Naira opened the year at an average exchange 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.
In the past few years, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been supporting the parallel and official window FX markets with foreign exchange in furtherance of its monetary policy measures to stabilize the local currency’s exchange rate against major foreign currencies.
However, the apex bank suspended its support for BDC dealers early in 2020 due to FX round tripping and other abuses by the BDC dealers and has not resumed supply to the market since then.
