Naira slides at official market, stable at parallel market

Naira on Wednesday recorded marginal depreciation against the dollar following a low activity level at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, Nigeria’s official foreign exchange market.

After trading on Wednesday, naira fell 0.06 per cent as the dollar was quoted at a rate of N437.50/$ compared to N437.25/$ quoted on Tuesday at the I&E or Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Rate Fixing (NAFEX) window.

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Most traders who participated at the foreign exchange auction on Wednesday maintained a bid at N460 (high) and N425 (low).

The daily foreign exchange market turnover declined by 34.94 per cent to $70.42 million on Wednesday from $108.24 million recorded on Tuesday, data from the FMDQ indicated.

At the parallel market, popularly called black market, the local currency closed unchanged at N735 per dollar as demand slowed.

In the last month, the naira has depreciated by 3.97 per cent in the parallel market. It traded at N704/$ at the beginning of September to N732/$ this week.