Naira Loses N70.65 Against the US Dollar as FX Supply Weakens

The Naira declined N70.65 against the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) to exchange at N1,670.65/$1 on Monday after Dollar liquidity in the currency market slid heavily.

The domestic currency depreciated by 4.4 percent versus N1,600.00/$1 it closed in the previous session on Friday.

The Naira has seen volatile levels this year as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has not been able to constantly sell FX to the market. In the last two months, the apex bank has erratically supplied FX sales to the market.

The CBN has announced plans to fix this as the governor of the apex bank, Olayemi Cardoso, has said Nigeria will attract $1 billion in diaspora remittances in 2025.

The apex bank said the concerns raised by international money transfer operators have been addressed and also introduced other banking products that would help in “increasing the inflows to $1 billion monthly,”

Cardoso also said monthly inflows from this channel have risen from $250 million in April to $600 million in September.

Data showed a slump in supply as the turnover published on the FMDQ Group website stood at $81.17 million indicating that the session’s turnover dropped 71.5 per cent, suggesting that there was a decline of $203.76 million compared to the $284.93 million that was published in the last trading session.

However, the Naira witnessed gains against the Pound Sterling and the Euro. It rose N4.58 on the British currency to wrap the session at N2,127.71/£1 from N2,132.29/£1 that it sold at the previous session. In the same trend, against the Euro, the Nigerian currency gained N5.95 and closed at N1,774.13/€1 versus N1,768.18/€1.

In the black market, the Naira lost N10.02 against the greenback to close at N1,699.63 to the US Dollar compared to N1,689.61/$1 it closed on Friday.

The local currency also dropped in value against the British currency in the black market as it slid by N1.77 to sell at N2,205.92/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N2,204.15/£1 and followed the same pattern against the Euro as it depreciated N1.07 to quote at N1,841.41/€1 versus the previous day’s rate of N1,840.34/€1.

However, the local currency gained N3.91 to close at N1,231.15 per Canadian Dollar, compared to Friday’s N1,235.06 per CAD.