Naira Hits N400 per Dollar at Black Market

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

For the first time since August 2016, the Naira was exchanged at the parallel foreign exchange market in Nigeria at N400 to the Dollar on Thursday, March 23, 2017.

The local currency opened at N410 against the American currency this morning, but gained N10 in the afternoon to trade at N400 per Dollar.

Yesterday, the Nigerian currency appreciated by N20 at the black market, a day after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) retained all key monetary rates at the end of its two-day Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja.

The Naira did not only perform well against the Dollar, but the Pound Sterling and the Euro.

While it gained N10 against the Pound Sterling to exchange at N500, it added N5 against the Euro to go for N430.

Earlier this year, the Naira depreciated to over N530 per Dollar at the parallel market and this forced the apex bank to introduce a new forex policy to save the local currency.

Since the CBN took this step in February, the Dollar has continued to crash against the Naira.