Naira loses further at official market amid cash crunch

Naira fell slightly against the United States’ dollar at the Investors and Exporters window on Friday, extending losses to two successive days at the spot market in the midst of currency scarcity across the country.

Data published on the FMDQ website, where forex is officially traded, showed the domestic currency closed at ₦461.75 per $1 on Friday— the last business day of this week.

This translates to N0.35 or 0.08 per cent depreciation from N461.40 to a dollar recorded in the previous session on Thursday.

The data posted revealed that the Naira opened the day’s trading at N461:33 per $1, but traded within an intraday range of N446.00 ( high) and touched a low of N462.04 before settling at N461.75 on Friday.

Within the day’s business period, the official window recorded $67.57 million as foreign exchange turnover.

This week, the strongest rate the naira has exchanged hands with the greenback is N461.35 per dollar it closed at on Wednesday, while the weakest rate the naira plunged to within the week is N462.00 per dollar it traded on Monday and Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the naira gained significantly at the parallel market in the wake of the general elections and the lingering cash crunch within the country due to implementation of the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

According to currency dealers on the streets in Abuja, the naira traded at N750.00 to a dollar on Friday, while Bureau De Change operators in Uyo said the naira has been trading within the range of N740 and N745.00 since Monday.

The currency traders said the dollar was exchanged at N740.00 per $1 on Friday and sold at N750.00.

“People have been coming to change dollars since the beginning of this week. I think that’s why the price dropped compared to last week when we exchanged at N760.00,” a dealer in Uyo who identified himself simply as Shaibu told PREMIUM TIMES in an interview.