Naira appreciates as official exchange rate settles at N1,617.96/$1

The Nigerian currency, the naira recovered slightly to N1,617.96|$1 on the first trading day of the week, data from the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) window has shown.

This represents a gain of N9.44 when compared to the N1,627.40/$1 it closed with, on Friday, March 8, 2024.

Meanwhile, the naira gained N3 against the dollar at the parallel market as the local currency appreciated to N1,615/$1 as against the N1,618 /$1 it traded the previous day. As it stands, only N2 separates the naira at both official and parallel windows.

The naira also gained against the British Pound to trade at N2,030/£1 as against the previous trading day’s price of N2,050/£1 representing a gain of N20 for the local currency.

The naira closed flat against the Canadian dollar to trade at N1,150/CA$1, same as the previous trading day’s rate.

The naira gained N20 against the Euro to trade at ₦1,705/€1 as against the previous closing price of ₦1,725/€1 representing a loss of N5 for the local currency.

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The exchange rate has remained above N1600/$1 since the 5th of March due to insatiable demand for dollars as agents keep buying and hoarding forex.

Moreover, data from NAFEM showed that the forex transactions amounted to $96.13 million on the week’s first trading day, marking a significant drop of 64.31%, compared to the previous day’s turnover of $269.35 million.

Also, CBN data indicated that the foreign reserve stood at $34.11 billion as of 7th March 2024 as against $34.02 billion posted in the previous day.

The naira had mixed performance against major currencies on Thursday, according to data from the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window.

The I&E window showed a high of N1650/$1 and a low of N1511/$1, indicating a gap of N139/$1.

The daily turnover at the close of trading was $96.13 million, a decline of 64.31% from the previous trading day.

Also, the naira weakened at the parallel market where forex is traded unofficially, exchanging at N1,623/$1, a fall of 0.18% from N1,620/$1 traded on Friday.

In the same way, the naira lost 0.34% against the pound sterling, ending at N2,040/£1, compared to N2,033/£1 in the previous trading day.

While against the euro, the naira depreciated by 0.58%, ending at N1715/€1, as opposed to N1705/€1 in the preceding session.