Naira gains at official market

The Naira gained marginally against the U.S. Dollar at the I&E window of the foreign exchange market on Wednesday, as foreign exchange supply soared substantially.

Data posted on the FMDQ Security Exchange window where forex is officially traded showed that the currency closed at N410.75 at the NAFEX window. This represents a N0.88 or 0.21 per cent appreciation from N411.63 the rate it traded in the previous session on Tuesday.

This happened as forex turnover skyrocketed by 122.76 per cent with $131.16 million recorded as against the $58.88 million posted in the previous session on Tuesday.

Naira touched an intraday high of N360.00 and a low of N426.90 on Wednesday before closing at N410.75 after it has oscillated around the rate of N411.00 and above benchmark in the last four consecutive sessions simultaneously.

The last time the local currency hit N410.00 and above rate was on May 10 when it exchanged hands with the greenback currency at N410.67 at the over-the-counter (OTC) market.

No changes at parallel market

However, Nigeria’s naira remained unchanged against the U.S. dollar at the unofficial market on Wednesday, data posted on abokiFX.com, a website that collates parallel market rates in Lagos showed.

Data posted showed that the local currency again closed at N484.00 at the black market, the same rate it has been trading since May 14 last week.

Based on this, the spread between the parallel market and the official market exchange rates is pegged at N73.25, this translates to a margin of 15.13 per cent.