Naira appreciates to N1,490/$ at parallel market, depreciates at official window

The naira further appreciated to N1,490 at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday.

The current FX rate represents a 0.7 percent or N10 increase from the N1,500/$ traded on June 5.

Bureaux de change (BDC) operators who spoke to TheCable in Lagos quoted the buying price of the dollar at N1,460 and the selling price at N1,490 — leaving a profit margin of N30.

In the official market, the naira closed against the dollar at N1,483.29 on Friday — a 0.12 percent depreciation compared to the N1,481.49/$ recorded the previous trading day.

According to FMDQ Exchange, a platform that oversees official FX trading in Nigeria, the greenback exchanged for as high as N1,507 and as low as N1,399 during trading hours. 

The daily FX market turnover stood at $269.27 million.

Consequently, the gap between the black market and the official window was N6.71 on Friday,

On June 4, Fitch Ratings, a global rating agency, projected the naira would end the year at N1,450 to a dollar.

During a post-sovereign rating webinar, focused on Nigeria and Egypt, Gaimin Nonyane, director of Middle-East and Africa sovereigns at Fitch Ratings, said the naira is “still finding its feet”.

“We project that naira will average about N1,200/dollar this year and end the year around N1450/dollar. And in terms of next year, we see a gradual depreciation but it also depends largely on the foreign exchange reforms momentum,” Nonyane said.

In the short term, Fitch Ratings also projected a recovery in the oil sector to support FX demands.