By Adedapo Adesanya
The persistent huge demand for Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange market in Nigeria pushed the value of the local currency lower on Friday.
The Naira has endured a poor performance at the market segment this week as a result of the huge pressure on the Nigerian legal tender despite the efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to keep the supply uninterrupted to as the let the Naira/Dollar exchange rate stable.
Data from the FMDQ indicated that the daily market turnover increased yesterday by about 350 percent to $293 million from the $79 million recorded on Thursday.
This dropped the value of the local currency against the American currency by 34 kobo. At the close of transactions on Friday, the Naira was quoted at the market window at N362.57 per dollar against N362.23/$ it was exchanged the previous day.
At the CBN’s official window, which is also called the interbank market, the Naira/US Dollar rate closed flat at the final trading day of the week, trading at N306.85/$, the same as it did on Thursday.
On the parallel market, which is also known as the black market, the Naira saw a movement for the first time in almost two weeks, gaining N1 against the Dollar to trade at N359/$ against N360 of the previous session.
The local currency also gained against the British Pound at the same market window, appreciating by N2 to finish at N450/£ as against the N452/£ it was sold on Thursday.
However, the Euro saw no change as the Naira/Euro remained at N398/€ from the previous trading day.
Dipo Olowookere