Naira gains at official market as new notes' scarcity bites harder

Naira gained slightly against the United States dollar at the Investors and Exporters window on Wednesday, a day after it fell amidst scarcity of new naira notes in the country.

Data posted on FMDQ website, where forex is officially traded, showed that the local currency closed at ₦461.50 per $1 on Wednesday, translating to a 0.04 per cent appreciation from N461.67 to a dollar it traded in the previous session on Tuesday.

This became significant as forex supply within the business period skyrocketed by 30.1 per cent ($89.54 million) from $68.85 million recorded Tuesday.

The domestic currency touched an intraday low of N462.02 and climbed to a high of N446.00 per $1 before closing at N461.50 on Wednesday — the third business day of the week.

The official market window opened at N461.25 and closed at N461.50.

However, the rate at the parallel market depreciated as new note scarcity bites harder.

Currency dealers in Abuja said the dollar was exchanged at N765.00 to a dollar on Wednesday in the parallel market. This represents a N10.00 or 1.53 per cent depreciation from N755.00 per $1 it was exchanged Tuesday.

The currency dealers said Wednesday that the value of the naira against the dollar fell further because of the scarcity of new notes in the country.

“Because we don’t have naira, we are mostly trading dollars to dollars now,” a currency dealer at Abuja Zone 4, who declined to have his name mentioned, told PREMIUM TIMES.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the suit filed by some state governments challenging the 10 February deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the phasing out of the old naira notes.