Naira falls to N1,120/$ at parallel market

The naira has commenced a downward spiral, falling to N1,120 per dollar at the parallel market on Tuesday.

The figure represents a N95 or 9.27 percent depreciation compared to the N1,025 it traded on Monday.

Parallel market traders put the buying price of the dollar at N1,100 and the selling price at N1,120 — leaving a profit margin of N20.

Bureau De Change (BDC) operators in Lagos and Ogun states who spoke to TheCable on Tuesday said there was a surge in demand for the foreign currency in the parallel market.

“Today, there was high demand for dollars,” a BDC operator said.

Meanwhile, at the investors and exporters (I&E) window, the local currency depreciated by N60.89 or 7.53 percent against the dollar to close at N869.91 on Tuesday — from N809.02 on Monday. 

According to FMDQ Securities Exchange — a platform that oversees foreign exchange trading in Nigeria – the greenback’s highest rate for the day was N1,100 and its lowest intra-day price was N700.

On September 22, Wale Edun, the minister of finance, had linked the continued decline in the value of the naira to overdue forward payments.

However, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has started clearing the foreign exchange (FX) forwards backlog in banks.