Naira Likely To Weaken Further; Says Nigeria Finance Minister

Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed has said the Nigerian Naira will decline even further despite losing over 100% of its value since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power.

The minister disclosed this in an interview granted in Egypt and monitored by Investors King.

This is coming amid the scarcity of foreign exchange, widespread insecurity, increased unemployment and high inflation which has increased to 19.64 percent on a year-to-year basis in July.

Investors King had reported that the prices of goods and services in Nigeria rose to a 17-year high in July 2022, pushing the Consumer Price Index which measures the inflation rate to a 19.64% high, the highest since September 2005 when inflation peaked at 24.32 percent. 

Nigeria’s currency has been on a free fall against its global counterparts this year. On the black market, the exchange rate between the naira and the US dollar stood at N708/$1 on Friday, 9th September 2022. Naira traded against the dollar at the same price on Thursday. 

However, the exchange rate at the official Investors and Exporters window dipped further to close at N436.32/$ on Thursday.

Meanwhile, forex supply fell marginally by 54.4% to $37.5 million when compared to $82.23 million which was traded at the official market on Thursday.

While on the cryptocurrency peer-to-peer market, specifically on Binance, the dollar traded at the rate of N705.30/$. 

The country’s foreign reserve stood at a gross of $39.43 billion and a liquid of $39.18 billion. 

Nigeria which is widely acclaimed as Africa’s largest economy, however, saw its currency “Naira”  rated as the 11th worst performing currency in the world and fourth in Africa. 

Overall in Africa, the Zimbabwean dollar which has lost 99.33 percent of its value, was rated as the worst performing currency in Africa and the second in the world. Venezuela’s Bolivar was the worst-performing currency against the dollar with a depreciation rate of 99.39 percent.