Naira records 9% depreciation, trades N848/$ at I&E window

The naira, on Tuesday, fell to N848 at the investors’ and exporters’ (I&E) window — the country’s official trading window.

The local currency fell by 8.9 percent from the N778.80 it traded on Monday, according to data from FMDQ Securities Exchange, a platform that oversees foreign exchange (FX) trading in Nigeria.

FMDQ said the naira opened at N758.50 to the greenback on Wednesday, before closing at N848.12.

The data showed that the greenback recorded an intra-day high of N981 and a low of N700.

A total of $134.28 million in FX value was traded at the I&E window on Tuesday.

The depreciation also continued in the street market as the naira traded at N1,065 on Wednesday.

The black market rate means that the naira fell by N20 or 1.91 percent compared to the N1,045 it traded last week.

Currency traders known as Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators in the Ikeja area of Lagos, said there is still a scarcity of dollars in the street market. 

“Dollar is still scarce,” Aliyu, a BDC operator, told TheCable. 

The traders put the buying price of the dollar at N1,055 and the selling price at N1065 — leaving a profit margin of N10.

Meanwhile, the further depreciation of the local currency at the official window comes a week after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it would boost liquidity in the foreign exchange (FX) market by intervening “from time to time”. 

The CBN had also recently announced the lifting of the ban on 43 items previously restricted from accessing forex.

The decisions were part of the apex bank’s strategy to restore stability in the country’s FX market.

On October 14, the International Monetary Fund commended the CBN for the move but said the policies may require time to achieve the desired results.