Nigeria’s national currency – Naira – depreciated in its exchange rate against the US dollar at the parallel market in the early hours on Monday to N752/$1, representing a 0.94% depreciation when compared to the N745/$1 it traded on Friday.
Some black market FX traders attributed the depreciation of the local currency to large quantity of Naira notes’ supply to buyers as the January 31 deadline set by the CBN for their legality for transactions drew closer.
Similarly, the Naira also depreciated at the cryptocurrency peer-to-peer (P-2-P) exchange to trade at a minimum of N752.4/$1, indicating a 0.83% slide compared to N746.2/$1 it traded the same time last Friday.
It will be recalled that the local currency’s exchange rate at the investors and exporters (I&E) window closed last Friday at N461.75/$1, representing a 0.11% depreciation compared to N461.25/$1 recorded in the previous day’s trading session.
The data provided by the monetary authorities on the official window on Friday reflected that the Naira opening indicative rate closed at N461.25/$1, exchanged at N462/$1 as the highest rate during intra-day trading before it settled at N461.75/1. The Naira traded for as low as N446/$1 during the intra-day trading.
Despite the depreciation in the exchange rate of the local currency in the day under review, the foreign exchange (FX) turnover, however, increased by 116.3% to $97.67 million, from $45.16 million that exchanged hands in the previous day’s trading session.
Meanwhile, the CBN also reported that Nigeria’s external reserves stood at $37.07 billion as of last Thursday, representing a decline of 0.07% from the $37.09 billion that accrued to the reserves the previous day, thereby representing the eighth consecutive day of slide in value.
