Naira Rebounds, Closes at 380/Dollar

• Naira Rebounds, Closes at 380/Dollar

The naira rebounded slightly to 380 per United States dollar on Wednesday on the back of sustained dollar injection by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The gain came two days after local unit deprecated to 381/dollar.

The local unit had also closed at 381/dollar last Friday, having closed at 380/dollar consecutively between last Tuesday and Thursday.

The naira closed at 305.45 to the dollar on the interbank market on Wednesday. It was quoted at 382 per dollar at a trading window for investors.

The central bank has continued to supply dollars into the foreign exchange market.

The CBN injected $205m into the forex market on Monday. Last Monday, the regulator offered 457.3m into various segments of the forex market.

Analyst said on Monday that the naira was expected to trade within a narrow range on the back of CBN injection of dollars to improve liquidity and narrow the spread between official and black market rate.

“We see naira trading within the prevailing rate as the central bank sustains its dollar sales this week,” one senior currency trader told Reuters.

Currency analysts and economic experts have described as effective forex policies introduced by the regulator in recent months.

They said the moves had helped to narrow the gap between the official interbank and parallel market rates of the local unit.

They, however, stressed the need for exchange rate unification by the central bank.