Naira rises against dollar at official market

Naira strengthened against the U.S. dollar on Thursday at the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market, data from the FMDQ Security Exchange where currencies are officially traded showed.

At the Thursday trading session, Naira closed at N394.00. This represents N0.17 or 0.04 per cent increase over the rate at which it was traded at the previous session, which was N394.17.

The local unit’s appreciation in value came as turnover contracted by 13.9 per cent with $77.04 million recorded compared to the $89.5 million posted on Wednesday.

The domestic currency saw an intraday high of N390 and a low of N415.76 before closing at N394.00.

Meanwhile, at the black market, data from abokiFX.com, a website that collates parallel market rates in Lagos, showed naira to dollar exchange rate at N475, which has remained without movement since the week began.

That leaves the spread of N81 between the unofficial and the official rates, which translates to a 20.6 per cent disparity.

Experts say the gap between the rates have widened significantly on account of decline in revenue from oil, Nigeria’s main export triggered by the upsurge of the coronavirus pandemic.

The CBN’s official rate on Thursday was N379 per dollar.