Naira depreciates to N790/$ at parallel market

The improving fortune of the naira at the parallel market was reversed on Tuesday as the local currency depreciated to N790 per dollar.

The figure represents a depreciation of N80 or 11.3 percent from the N710 it traded on Friday morning.

The development is in sharp contrast to the N175 appreciation recorded a week ago when the parallel market exchange rate reduced from N885/$ to N710/$.

Currency traders known as Bureaux De Change operators (BDCs), who spoke on Tuesday in Lagos, attributed the depreciation to rising demand for the greenback by customers which worsened demand-supply dynamics.

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“People are coming to buy but we don’t have enough dollars to meet demand. The price of the dollar is going up because of that,” Alhaji Musa, a BDC operator in the Victoria Island area of Lagos said.

“Also, people now know that the rumour about America not accepting dollars printed below 2021 is not true. So, they keep coming to buy”.

On the official market side, the local currency depreciated by 0.06 percent to close at N446 on Monday, according to details on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange — a platform that oversees official foreign-exchange trading in Nigeria.

An exchange rate of N447 to the dollar was the highest rate recorded within the day’s trading before it settled at N446.

It sold for as low as N439.83 to the dollar within the day’s trading. A total of $63.83 million was traded in foreign exchange at the official investors and exporters window (I&E) window.