Naira depreciates at parallel market, exchanges for N760/$1

The naira has dropped to N760 per dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market, popularly called the black or street market. The figure represents a depreciation of N20 or 1.1 percent from the N740 it traded two weeks ago.

Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators put the buying price of the dollar at N740 and the selling price at N760, leaving an N20 profit margin.

They said there was low demand for the greenback in the street market.

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“Demand is not much. Maybe because it’s January. People are not rushing to buy dollars to import goods,” said a BDC operator in Victoria Island, Lagos.

At the official market, the local currency closed flat against the dollar at N461.50/$ on Tuesday, according to details on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange — a platform that oversees official foreign exchange trading in Nigeria.

The monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is expected to meet next week to determine the trajectory of the nation’s monetary policy and the economy at large.