Naira falls to new low at N1,040/$ at parallel market

The naira fell to a new all-time low at the parallel market on Wednesday trading in the range of N1,035 to N1,040 to one dollar.

The figure of N1,040/$ represents a depreciation of N40 or 4.0 per cent from the N1,000 it traded two weeks ago.

The street traders put the buying price of the dollar at N1,025 and the selling price at N1,045, leaving a N25 profit margin.

According to Vanguard report, one of the sources said, “The dollar is not readily available. It is scarce.”

At the official side of the market — the investors’ and exporters’ window (I & E) — the local currency depreciated by 0.70 per cent to close at N776.80 to the dollar on Wednesday.

According to details on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, a platform that oversees official FX trading in Nigeria, a total of $60.30 million FX transactions were made at the I&E window.

The poor performance of the naira against the dollar has been connected to liquidity problems.

Data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disclosed Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves fell to $33.23 billion (two-year low) at the end of the third quarter of 2023.

The international reserves declined by $5.01 billion on a year-on-year basis relative to the $38.25 billion reported at the end of September 2022.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the foreign reserves depreciated by $881.84 million, having closed the second quarter (Q2) at $34.11 billion.

It would be recalled that the World Bank recently declared the naira and the kwanza of Angola as the “worst performing currencies” in Africa so far in 2023.

The organisation said both currencies have depreciated by nearly 40 per cent.