Naira appreciates further, trades N1,025/$ at parallel market

The naira, on Monday, appreciated further at the parallel section of the foreign exchange market to N1,025 a dollar.

This represents an appreciation of N15 or 1.44 percent compared to the N1,040 it traded last Friday.

Speaking to TheCable in Lagos, currency traders, also known as Bureau De Change operators (BDCs), said the gain was due to reduced demand for the greenback. 

The traders put the buying price of the dollar at N1,010 and the selling price at N1,025 — leaving a profit margin of N15.

“The demand for dollars is decreasing,” a trader who simply identified as Hamuc said. 

Meanwhile, the local currency depreciated by 4.24 percent at the official market to close at N809.02 to the dollar on Monday — from N776.14/$ last Friday. 

According to details on FMDQ Securities Exchange, a platform that oversees official foreign exchange trading in Nigeria, the highest price recorded within the day’s trading was N1,100/$, while the lowest was N720.50.

On Friday, Aminu Gwadabe, the president of the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), had said it is necessary for the management of CBN to continue to make clarifications and implement some of the association’s recommendations to include the BDCs in the foreign exchange market.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan, a US multinational financial services firm, had projected the naira would trade at about N850 to the dollar before the end of 2023.