CBN in dilemma as Naira depreciates further at official market

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) defense of Nigerian currency is making little impact as the value of the Naira continues falling against the US dollar at the official market.

In the first two weeks of February, CBN had withdrawn from the external reserves a total of $207.9 million but this has failed to help Naira performance.

On Friday, 18 February 2021, the Naira ended at N416.75 per dollar, down 8 kobo or 0.02 percent from the previous day’s close of N416.67/$1 at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign currency (FX) market.

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Data from FMDQ securities showed the value of the transaction at the market, dropped by 49.6 per cent or $62.99 million to $64.03 million from the $127.02 million achieved at the previous session.

It was a similar story against the Pound Sterling as the Naira depreciated by N2.46 to close at N567.14/£1 compared with N564.68/£1 it was transacted a day earlier

However, against the Euro, the local currency appreciated yesterday by N1.04 to settle at N473.08/€1 versus N474.12€1 of the preceding session CBN data shows.

At the Black market, the exchange rate remained at N574 on Monday morning.