Naira Weakens to N1,706 Per Dollar in Black Market, Sells N1,654 Officially

The Naira weakened to N1,700 against the United States Dollar on the black market on Wednesday and extended this outcome further in the official foreign exchange (FX) market.

In the black market, the Naira lost N12.63 or 0.75 percent against the greenback to close at N1,706.43 to the US Dollar compared to N1,693.80/$1 it closed on Tuesday.

The Naira also fell by 0.06 percent on the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) extending the weakening of the local currency which started earlier in the week

The local currency exchanged for the US Dollar at N1,654.09/$1, sliding by N1.07 versus N1,653.02/$1 that it closed at the previous session on Tuesday.

The FX market has been volatile as recent efforts to bring some stability to the market through a series of auctions held by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for official dealers and Bureau de Change (BDCs) have not been able to tackle high seasonal demand.

With the year entering into the last two months, high demand has returned to the market and all eyes will be on what the CBN will do in that regard.

Data showed that there was a decrease in daily supply as the midweek turnover published on the FMDQ Group website stood at $136.68 million indicating that the session’s turnover made a 22.4 percent slide, indicating that there was a drop of $39.47 million compared to $176.15 million that was published in the last trading session.

The Naira also witnessed drops against the Pound Sterling and the Euro. It declined N9.86 on the British currency to wrap the session at N2,147.22/£1 from N2,137.36/£1 that it sold at the previous session.

In the same trend, against the Euro, the Nigerian currency dropped N9.67 and closed at N1,789.93/€1 versus N1,780.26/€1.

The Naira also dropped in its value against the British currency in the black market as it fell by N8.86 to sell at N2,212.37/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N2,203.51/£1 and followed the same pattern against the Euro as it depreciated N5.71 to quote at N1,844.79/€1 versus the previous day’s rate of N1,839.08/€1.

Meanwhile, the local currency further depreciated N3.54 to close at N1,233.01 per Canadian Dollar, compared to Monday’s N1,226.55 per CAD.