Nigeria’s Naira Rate Hits New Low at N820/$

By: Ashe

The local currency of Nigeria, Naira, has hit a new low at the weekend, trading at N803.9 to a dollar in the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window which is the official forex market and N822/$ in the parallel market. This is due to the backdrop of sustained supply gap in Nigeria’s foreign exchange (forex) market,

A week-on-week trend in the parallel market shows a 5.5 percent depreciation to N822/$ as against N779/$ closing rate previous week.

In the I&E window, the local currency depreciated 3.9 percent W-o-W to N803.9/$ from N776.9/$ the previous Friday.

Reviews of financial activities in Nigeria show that after the initial massive depreciation on June 14th, 2023 when the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, introduced reforms in the market, exchange rate had remained volatile with daily fluctuations until the record low was hit last weekend.

The reform majorly eliminated multiple exchange rates and reintroduced the ‘Willing Buyer Willing Seller’ market model in the I&E window.

Since the new measures were introduced, the Naira has depreciated cumulatively in the I&E window and parallel market by 70 per cent (N321.23) and 7.0 per cent (N58) respectively.