Naira ends rally at parallel market, depreciates to N1,230/$

The naira reversed the appreciation trend at the parallel section of the foreign exchange market on Friday.

The local currency depreciated by 17.14 percent to N1,230 per dollar — from N1,050/$ on April 17.

Currency traders, known as bureau de change (BDC) operators, quoted the buying rate at N1,200 and the selling price at N1,230 — leaving a profit margin of N30.

“The price of the dollar against naira increased since yesterday, probably due to the fact that there has been an increased demand since yesterday,” Aliyu, a BDC operator, said.

Meanwhile, the decline ended the upward trend of the naira at the street market since March 20, when the FX rate was N1,500/$.

At the official window, the naira depreciated to N1,169.99 against the dollar on Friday — a 1.38 percent drop from the N1,154.08/$ traded on April 18.

The local currency traded at a high of N1,236 and a low of N1,021, according to FMDQ Exchange, a platform that oversees official FX trading in Nigeria.

The development comes a day after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) denied selling FX to BDC  operators at the rate of N1,001/$1.

CBN, in a post on X on April 18, said a circular claiming the apex bank announced the sale of $10,000 to BDCs at the rate of N1,001/$1 was “fake”.

The apex bank urged Nigerians to always refer to its website for authentic information.