Against its consistence appreciating streak in the last one week, the Naira, on Wednesday relapsed by 0.82 per cent at the unofficial market to close at N370 to a dollar against N367 closed on the first trading day of the week.
The fall in Naira is coming on the heels of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Inter-bank Foreign Exchange market injection to the tune of $413.5 million, as speculators continued to drive the parallel market rate.
Also, at the official foreign exchange market, the local currency exchanged at N305.7 against a depreciated N305.65 sold on Monday compare to N305.55 traded last week, but gained against the pound at N388.9 and N342.6 respectively, against N400.93 and N352.06 sold respectively on Monday.
But the Naira, on Wednesday retained strengthened rate against the Pound sterling, closing at N465, the same amount it has been trading since Monday, which is better than N470 exchanged last week Friday and also recorded a slight gain against Euro to close at N407 compare to N411 sold the previous day.
At the Investor &Exports foreign exchange window, the naira depreciated improved slightly at N373.25 against the depreciated value of N373.28 closed at the beginning of the week.
Earlier in the week, while giving a breakdown of the latest round of forex intervention, acting director, corporate communications, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, said the sum of $100 million was offered to dealers in the wholesale window, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) window was allocated $28 million. The invisibles segment was allocated the sum of $25.5 million to meet the needs of those requiring foreign exchange for Business/Personal Travel Allowances, school tuition, medicals, among others.
According to Okorafor, the bank also released the figures for the auction sales in the retail window last week, totaling $260million. He said the bank was optimistic that the Naira will continue its strong run against the dollar and other major currencies around the world, considering that transparency in the market has ensured greater stability.
On the Bank’s objective to achieve convergence between the foreign exchange rates at both the inter-bank and BDC segments, Okorafor said the CBN was confident of achieving the goal soon, particularly if all stakeholders played by the rules. He therefore charged all dealers, principally licensed Bureaux De Change (BDCs), to abide by the rule, for the sake of the economy. Meanwhile, the naira continued to maintain its stability in the foreign exchange market, exchanging at an average of $1/N362 in the BDC segment of the market.