The Nigerian Naira plunged to N580 to a United States Dollar at the parallel market on Wednesday despite efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to up Naira value against its global counterparts.

At the official exchange window, the Nigerian Naira closed at N414.30 to a United States Dollar on Tuesday after hitting as low as N415.20 to a US dollar. Investors traded $122.15 million during the trading hours of Tuesday.

However, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s exchange rates remained largely unchanged at N410.81 to a United States Dollar. The apex bank sold the British Pound at N559.5368 and Euro common currency was exchanged at N474.0747 as shown below.

Nigeria’s economic uncertainty has dragged on Nigeria’s Naira value over the years. However, what keeps the Naira below  its global counterparts is Nigeria’s poor economic structure of over reliance on foreign imports and limited foreign revenue generation that has crippled the Central Bank of Nigeria’s ability to effectively service the Nigerian economy with enough US dollar.

Nigeria imports over 90 percent of what it consumes. This, excessive importation means most of the foreign exchanges accrued to the nation are spent on importation at the expense of local manufacturing industry.

British Pound is trading at over N770 to a Nigerian Naira while Euro was exchanged at over N630 on Tuesday at the parallel market on Tuesday. See the Central Bank of Nigeria’s inaccessible exchange rates below.

Central Bank of Nigeria’s Exchange Rates