Naira appreciates marginally against dollar at investors’ window

The Naira on Thursday appreciated marginally against the dollar at the investors’ window, our correspondent reports.

The Nigerian currency gained 9 kobo to exchange at N360.42, slightly stronger than 360.51 posted on Wednesday, while it closed at N305.65 at the CBN window.

The naira remained stable at the parallel market, trading at N363 to the dollar, while the Pound Sterling weakened marginally to N507 from N505 posted on Wednesday; and the Euro maintained N445.

Trading at the Bureau De Change (BDC) window showed that the naira closed at N362 to the dollar, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N507 and N445, respectively.

Traders were of the opinion that the weekly interventions of the CBN in the foreign exchange market would lead to a further appreciation of the naira at the parallel market.

It was reported that the CBN had on Wednesday injected 210 million dollars to the FX market to boost liquidity.

The apex bank had injected over 16 billion dollars to the market since February 2017 to defend the naira against the activities of currency speculators.

With the oil price racing towards the 76 dollar mark and improved external reserves of about N47 billion dollars, the CBN is confident that it has adequate cover for the naira.

However, experts argue that relying on oil price alone may not be sufficient and sustainable in shoring up the value of the naira in the long run.