Naira gains value, trades at N890/$ at parallel market

Nigeria's official currency, the naira, is now trading at N890 to $1 on the secondary foreign exchange (FX) market.

The price has increased by 60, or 6.3 percent, from the N950 it was last week.

The naira has been slowly strengthening against the US dollar at the street market, Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators in Lagos' Victoria Island neighbourhood told TheCable on Wednesday afternoon.

They set the price of a dollar at N870 for purchase and N890 for sale, resulting in a N20 profit margin.

"Dollar has been dropping. Yesterday, I sold it for N930. No matter how the dollar goes up, it always comes back down. That’s how it is,” a currency trader in the Victoria Island market said.

The local currency is currently being purchased for N850 per dollar and sold for N860 per dollar, according to currency traders in Ogun state's Agbara region.

According to information on the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, a platform where foreign exchange is legally transacted, the local currency declined by 4.08 percent to settle at N774.77/$ on Tuesday at the investors and exporters (I&E) forex window.

Before it settled at N774.77, the highest exchange rate to the dollar throughout the day's trade was N799.9.

The statistics also revealed that market dealers exchanged foreign currency worth $95.79 million.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced further measures to stabilise the value of the naira relative to the dollar on Monday.

Acting CBN Governor Folasodun Shonubi said President Bola Tinubu was concerned about the local currency's persistent depreciation against the dollar and that steps will be taken to address the issue.

Source