Naira down at official FX market, steadies at parallel segment

The Nigerian currency, Naira, on Monday slightly dropped further to close at 305.80 per US Dollar, against 305.75 sold on Friday and 305.65 traded last Monday at the official foreign exchange maker, while the parallel segment of the forex market stood steadied against the three major foreign currencies.

The local currency, at the end of yesterday trading activities at the unofficial forex market was seen stabled at 363 per Dollar, the same rate it has been selling in the last one month. The Naira, also, maintained closing rate of 475 to the Pound Sterling after opening the month at a low rate of 485 but strengthened to 480 within the month before closing at 475 over the weekend and sustained the rate as at close of Monday trading at the parallel market.

Similarly, the Naira against the Euro at some point during the month traded at a better rate of 422 but lost three points to close at 425 in the recent weeks.

However, the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange (NAFEX) widow opened low at 359 to the dollar compared to 359.03 sold on the last trading day in last week, representing a drop of 0.35 per cent, before closing at 360.61 which was a decline of 0.08 per cent, while compared to 360.31 traded on Friday.

But the Importer and Exporter FX window traded total volume of $108.34 million against $103.34 million sold on Friday and $156.43 million recorded a week ago, even as the window has recorded total transactions of $831.25 between October 3 and October 30, 2017.

In fact, in the last four weeks, the autonomous forex window had received a whopping $4.096.36 billion turnover with last week only accounted for just $722.91 million, against $1.172.33 billion in the first traded week during the month.

This, was also lower than $954.76 recorded at the end of second traded week, as well as the highest traded figure of $1.246.36 sold in the previous week during the considered period.

Meanwhile, the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, had said that he expects the naira to appreciate into 2018 as oil prices trend higher and production levels remain high.

In view of this, the apex bank has continued to ease the pressure of forex demand in key sectors of the economy, with weekly injections of forex into the Inter-bank foreign exchange market.

Evident , in a bid to ease the pressure of forex demand in key sectors of the economy such as, agriculture, aviation, petroleum and raw materials sectors, the apex bank on last trading day of the week under review injected total sum of $285.7 million into the Inter-bank foreign exchange market.