Victor Ezeja
The Nigerian currency, the Naira, ended the week with a 9.1 per cent depreciation at the official segment of the foreign exchange market. The local currency had on Monday, April 15, 2024, closed trading at N1,136.04/$1 which was 0.55 per cent gain from the previous Friday.
On Tuesday, April 16, it however dropped by 1.1 per cent to N1,148.14. Tuesday’s depreciation of the naira against the dollar was the first after months of steady gains.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelOn Wednesday, April 17, it gained N75.4 which represents 6.6 per cent. The naira had another downturn on Thursday, April 18, losing N81.34 which reflects 7.6 per cent depreciation. It further depreciated to N1,169.99 on Friday, April 19 which is a N15.91 loss when compared to the figure traded the previous day, according to data from the Nigeria Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market where the official forex trading takes place in the country.
According to the NAFEM data published on the FMDQ Securities and Exchange platform for trading on Friday, there was an intraday high of N1,236.00/$1 and a low of N1,021/$1, while daily forex turnover was 86.68 million dollars.
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The trajectory of trading within the week under review means that the naira depreciated three times against the dollar within the week.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has relentlessly continued to push for naira stability through a raft of monetary policy measures including the resumption of sales of FX to eligible Bureau de Change (BDC) operators. This measure by the apex bank is to boost the supply of FX in the retail market to curb activities of currency speculators as it sells at a reduced price with a mandate that BDCs should sell at a spread of not more than 1.5 per cent of the purchase price.
As of April 15, Nigeria’s foreign reserves had dropped to $32.29 billion, which analysts said was because the CBN was using it to battle naira depreciation. However, the CBN Governor Dr Olayemi Cardoso, said the depletion of the FX reserves was due to foreign loan repayment.
