By Dipo Olowookere
It was a bad week for the local currency last week as it performed woefully despite efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to provide support for the Naira.
For example, the local currency lost 1.11 percent against the Dollar at the Bureau De Change to close at N365 despite the move by CBN to include Thursday as special intervention day to sell additional $15,000 to BDC operators in order to take care of customers’ personal and business allowances during the Christmas period.
Also, the local currency depreciated at the parallel (black) market segments by 1.65 percent to close N370/$.
However, the Naira appreciated at Investors & Exporters Forex Window (I&E FXW) by 0.16 percent to close at N364.10/$ despite the declining crude oil prices.
The local currency remained flat to close at N359.81/$ at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market amid weekly injection of $210 million by the apex bank into the foreign exchange.
Meanwhile, the Naira/USD moved in mixed directions across dated foreign exchange forward contracts at the interbank over-the-counter (OTC) segment – spot and 1 year FX rate rose (i.e. Naira depreciated) 0.02 percent and 0.36 percent, to close at N306.80/$ and N413.51/$ respectively.
However, 1 month and 3 months FX rate fell (Naira appreciated) by 0.02 percent and 0.10 percent, to close at N367.55/$ and N374.29/$ respectively.
