Naira Falls To N1,637.59/$1 On Official Market

The naira appears to have resumed its slide on the official market as it plunged to N1,637.59/$1 on Tuesday, compared to N1,580.46/$1 on Monday, data from FMDQ shows.

New Telegraph’s analysis of the FMDQ data indicates that the naira maintained a downward trend for most part of last week. stance, the local currency which closed at N1,585.77/$1 on the official market last Monday depreciated to N1,611.34/$1, N1,625.88/$1 and N1,639.41/$1 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

The naira has also been under pressure on the parallel market in in the last few days, easing to N1,661 per dollar yesterday compared to N1,660/$1 on Monday.

This is despite the fact that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last Friday approved the sale of $20,000 to each eligible Bureau De Change (BDC) operator at N1,580/$1, “to meet the demand for invisible transactions.”

In its bid to ensure exchange rate stability, the apex bank had significantly increased its interventions in the official market between July and August. Specifically, on July 12, it sold foreign currencies worth $122.67 million to 46 authorised dealers.

Also, between July 17 and July 18, it sold foreign currencies worth $106.5 million to 29 authorised dealer banks. Likewise, on July 22 and 23, it sold foreign currencies worth $148 million in the Nigerian foreign exchange market (NFEM) to 29 authorised dealers.

On August 7, the regulator undertook a Retail Dutch Auction System (rDAS) during which it auctioned a total sum of $876.26 million at N1,495/$1 to 26 qualified banks, which participated in the auction.

Governor of CBN, Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, had told BloombergTV in June that the apex bank was “relatively pleased” with the progress it had made in stabilising the naira and that he believed that the country had, “more or less seen the worst in terms of (naira) volatility.”