The Naira at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) closed on Friday at N1537.96 against the dollar as pressure mounted on the local currency.
The local currency depreciated by 4.6 percent Week-on-Week (WoW) from N1,469.97 against the dollar it opened for trading this week.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold c.$170.00 million to banks during the week in its moves to stem pressure in foreign exchange.
At the NAFEM, total turnover (as of 15 February 2024) declined by 60.2per cent Week-till-Date (WtD) to $968.86 million, with trades consummated within the N922.38 – N1,607.00/dollar limit. In the Forwards market, the naira depreciated across the 1-month (-2.5per cent to N1,505.23/dollar), 3-month (-2.7per cent to N1,542.87/dollar), 6-month (-3.2per cent to N1,595.69/ dollar), and 1-year (-3.4per cent to N1,702.07/dollar) contracts.
Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves recorded gains this week, as the gross reserves level increased by $96.05 million w/w to $33.21 billion (14 February).
Analysts at Cordros Research stated that “Notwithstanding the recent policy actions by the CBN, the currency has remained under pressure given that the market supply remains frail.
“In our opinion, this will remain the case until the apex authority (1) completely clears the FX backlog, (2) significant inflows are received from foreign sources through foreign borr
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