Naira falls to N1,020/$1 at parallel market

By Sodiq Adelakun

The Nigerian foreign exchange (FX) market opened on Monday with the naira/dollar exchange rate quoting at N1,020/$.

This comes after the naira strengthened to 970 per dollar on the black market over the weekend following some positive sentiments around government plans to shore up dollar liquidity in the foreign exchange market.

This increase in the value of the naira was due to the high possibility of more foreign exchange inflows in Africa’s largest economy.

The optimistic emotions sparked by the FG’s promises to support dollar liquidity in the FX market arbitrarily strengthened the local currency.

This positive sentiment led to street traders purchasing dollars at a rate of N901 over the weekend, as opposed to N1,050 on Friday of last week.

The recent developments in the FX market have brought some relief to Nigerians who have been grappling with the devaluation of the naira for some time now.

However, there is still some uncertainty around the government’s FX policies, and it remains to be seen how the market will react in the coming days.

The optimistic atmosphere in the market sparked a wave of enthusiasm among street traders, who eagerly snapped up dollars at a rate of N901 over the weekend, a significant improvement from the N1,050 rate just a few days prior.

Unfortunately, the naira’s momentum faltered slightly in the P2P market, where it traded at approximately N980/$ in the early hours of Monday.

This setback, however, did not deter the operators of domestic exchange bureaus, who believe that injecting liquidity into the retail sector of the foreign exchange market could help bolster the naira’s recovery and ensure its stability against the dollar.