Naira Sustains Gain In New Week  At Official Market

The Nigerian currency the naira, has further appreciated, exchanging N1,570.99 at the official market on Monday, 12th August.

The naira has continued to gain against the dollar at the official segment of the foreign exchange market in the last one week, gaining N36.16 against the greenback.

This represents 2.25 per cent increase in value in the last seven days. According to data from the FMDQ Securities and Exchange, the official trading platform of the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), the naira had on Monday, 5 August, closed trading at N1,607.15 per dollar. It thereafter continued to appreciate, reaching N1,574.20 on Friday, 9 August and N1,570.99 per dollar on Monday.

According to NAFEM data, there was an intraday high of N1,593.00 and a low of  N1,500.00 on Monday.

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Also, the daily FX turnover, however, dropped from $323.11 million to $246.44 million. This is $76.67 million or 23.72 per cent decrease in turnover.

Analysts have attributed the rise in value of the naira in the foreign exchange market in the last one week to the ongoing efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to boost liquidity. The CBN had on Wednesday, sold $876 million at the rate of N1,495 per dollar to end users through 26 authorised dealer banks who were successful in the Retail Dutch Auction System (RDAS).

The measure was to reduce the demand pressure in the FX market and promote price discovery.