Naira depreciates further at parallel market, now N480/$

As the scarcity of foreign exchange gets stronger at the parallel market, the value of the naira dipped further selling at N480 to the dollar yesterday while the value remained stable at the interbank market.

At the interbank end of the foreign exchange market, the naira sold at N305.25 the same rate it was quoted on Monday according to data provided by FMDQ. At the parallel market, the value of the naira had dropped by 1.5 per cent from N473 which it sold on Monday.

The naira had remained relatively stable around N465 and N470 at the parallel market last week before it dipped to N473 on Friday last week which it also sold on Monday. Meanwhile, the external reserves of the country continued to rise steadily despite the activities of the militants in the oil rich Niger Delta region.

This according to traders may be due to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision not to intervene in the interbank market by selling dollars to shore up the value of the naira. The external reserves which had dipped to a low of  $23.89 billion as at October 19, 2016 has risen by 3.33 per cent.

Latest figures given by the apex bank on its website showed that the 30 day moving average of the country’s external reserves stood at $24.695 billion as at November 28, 2016.