Naira dips further at parallel market, gains on official window

Naira weakened further against the U.S. dollar at the parallel market on Thursday, extending a three-day fall that was triggered by the devaluation of the currency Monday.

Data on abokiFX.com, a website that collates parallel market rates, showed the local currency closed at N495.00 at the black market, a 0.41 per cent decline from N493.00 it traded on Wednesday.

The last time the currency closed at N495.00 was on December 1, 2020.

However, the naira gained for the second consecutive day against the U.S. dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window on Thursday, as foreign exchange supply skyrocketed by 168.70 per cent, with $350.65 million posted as against $130.50 million posted in the previous session.

At the Nafex window, data posted showed that the domestic currency closed at N411.00 to the dollar, a 0.12 per cent appreciation from N411.50 it traded in the previous session on Wednesday.

This came to effect as the naira touched an intraday low of N420.25 and a high of N400.00, according to data posted on the FMDQ Security Exchange where forex is officially traded.

Since the CBN posted the I&E rate Monday on its website two weeks after it deleted the previous official fixed rate of 379 naira which signifies an effective devaluing of the currency by 7.6 per cent.

By implication, this extended the spread between the unofficial market and the NAFEX window further. Hence, based on the aforementioned status of both markets, the disparity between the black market and official market rates is pegged at N84.00.

This translates to a margin of 16.97 per cent as of the close of business, Thursday.