Naira Gains, Closes at 374/Dollar

• Naira Gains, Closes at 374/Dollar

The naira appreciated to 374 per United States dollar on Thursday, up from 382/dollar on Wednesday.

The local unit closed at 382/dollar from Monday to Wednesday.

This came just as currency analysts expect the naira to be stable across the board in the near term on increased dollar supply to both the official interbank window and the black market.

The local unit has been trading around 382/dollar on the black market in the last two weeks, while at the interbank market the naira was trading at around 305.40 per dollar.

According to Reuters, the Central Bank of Nigeria has been intervening on the official market to try to narrow the spread between the official interbank and black markets.

The CBN has sold over $4bn since February, improving dollar supply and providing support for the naira.

On the back of sustained dollar injection by the CBN, the local unit has been showing resilience against the greenback.

The CBN has injected $100m, $205m and $457.3m respectively into various segments of the forex market in the past three weeks.

Currency analysts said the creation of the “Investors & Exporters FX Window” by the CBN was a right move, adding that it had helped to narrow the gap between the official and parallel market rates of the local unit.

They, however, stressed the need for the unification of the various exchange rates by the central bank.

The Kenyan shilling could gain ground against the dollar in the coming week with dwindling end month importer demand giving way to foreign exchange inflows from charities and exporters, traders said.