Naira gains after two days of losses as CBN adjusts exchange rates for clearing goods, others

After two days of sustained losses, the naira rallied slightly against the US dollar in the official market.

The Nigerian currency closed trading at N1,602.17 per dollar on Thursday, March 7, 2024, representing a 0.22% gain from the N1,605.74 per dollar traded the previous day.

Naira loses in the black market

However, in the parallel market, the naira lost slightly against the dollar, trading at N1,630 from N1,625 per dollar sold the previous day.

The official FX trade has remained above the N1,600 per dollar threshold for two consecutive days, sparking fears that the local currency may have stagnated against major currencies.

Data from NAFEM shows that Forex turnover dropped slightly by 2.50% to $164.76 million, compared to $168.98 million the day before. The naira has weakened by 3.4% since the beginning of the week when it closed at N1,534.19 to a dollar. Traders quote new rates on intraday.

Traders quoted the naira at an intraday high of N1,635 per dollar and a low of N1,470, representing a disparity of N165 per dollar. This development follows another adjustment of the Customs foreign exchange by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for cargo clearance at Nigerian ports.

CBN adjust FX rates for Customs

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) readjusted the official exchange rate on the Customs platform, the second review in less than 24 hours.

Data from the federal government trading portal shows that as of Wednesday, March 6, 2024, importers will now pay N1560.511 per dollar for customs duty charges.

The latest change represents a 1.06% or 16.43 increase compared to the N1,544.081/$ exchange rate displayed on Tuesday, March 5, 204 The new exchange rate comes as Nigerian currency crashed against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday, March 5, 2024.

Data from FMDQ securities showed that the naira's value depreciated by 4.5 per cent or N68.24 to N1,602.43/$1 from the preceding day's rate of N1,534.19/$1.

CBN takes another bold step to help naira

Legit.ng reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria successfully sold N1.3 trillion worth of treasury bills on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at a very high rate, targeting foreign portfolio investors (FPIs).

This is part of CBN's efforts to attract liquidity to strengthen the naira, which has been experiencing a free fall lately due to a shortage in forex supply.

Treasury Bills, or T-Bills, are government-backed, short-term securities issued by the CBN.

They are issued when the government needs to borrow funds for some time. They have a maximum maturity of 364 days.