By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian currency appreciated by N1 against its American counterpart at the parallel market on Thursday, October 8 to close at N457/$1 in contrast to N458/$1 it quoted on Wednesday.
At the same segment, the domestic currency gained N2 against the Pound Sterling to settle at N595/£1 versus the previous day’s rate of N597/£1 and on the Euro, it grew stronger by N3 to close at N537/€1 as against the preceding session’s N540/€1.
At another window of the foreign exchange market yesterday, the Investors & Exporters’ (I&E), the value of the Naira became stronger than the US Dollar by 17 kobo or 0.04 per cent, closing at N385.83/$1 in contrast to the midweek session’s N386/$1.
This strengthening of the local currency came despite the significant rise in the demand for the greenback at the trading session. The value of transactions recorded at the investors’ window rose by 201.1 per cent or $117.71 million to $176.23 million from $58.52 million of the previous session.
Business Post observed that the Nigerian Naira did not come under pressure at the market segment yesterday because of the sufficient supply of forex to traders to meet the demands of their customers.
At the interbank segment on Thursday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) still made the Dollar available to commercial banks at the previous rate of N379.
At the Bureaux De Change (BDC) segment, the Naira to Dollar exchange rate closed at N386/$1 and so far, the CBN has auctioned forex worth over $500 million to more than 5,000 traders.
On Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari presented the proposed 2021 Budget of N13.08 trillion to a joint session of the National Assembly.
According to the President, the budget termed Budget Of Economic Recovery and Resilience will address key economic issues as the country tries to recover from the impact of the coronavirus and the oil price drop, which has constricted the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
He explained that the government is determined to accelerate the country’s economic recovery process while decrying the revenue generation challenges.
The proposed expenditure comes on the back of a crude oil benchmark price pegged at $40 per barrel and a daily oil production estimate of 1.86 million barrels (inclusive of condensates of 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day).
An inflation rate of 11.95 per cent and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 3.00 per cent was considered for the fiscal year.
Dipo Olowookere