Naira see another big fall against dollar

Naira fell to an all-time low against the U.S. dollar on Friday, depreciating 0.58 per cent at the official market. The currency had a recorded a slight gain in the previous session on Thursday.

The local unit which opened trading at N437.00, closed at N439.17 to a dollar at the close of business on Friday, data published by FMDQ, where forex is officially traded, revealed.

Within this period, the Naira hovered within an intraday range of N422.00 (high) and declined to N450.00 before closing at N439.17 per $1 on Friday, with $99.7 million recorded as forex turnover at the close of business.

This is the lowest rate the Naira has traded at the spot market. It closed at N437.03 on Friday last week.

Meanwhile, the volatility of the currency at the parallel market still continued.

Traders at the Zone 4 market in Abuja, said the currency was exchanged at N725.00 and sold at N728.00 to a dollar on Friday as against N730.00 and 735.00 per $1 mark it traded in the previous days (Wednesday and Thursday).

“The price dropped a bit today. I think it is because of the weekend and the holiday on Monday,” one trader said.

He said traders were are afraid to buy dollars and keep because they feared the price may drop by Monday next week.