Naira Records Further Gain Against Dollar, Trades At N365/$

The naira has recorded further gain against the United States dollar on the parallel market, closing at N365/$.

The local currency closed at 367/dollar on Friday, after closing between 367/dollar and 368/dollar for most days of last week.

This is even as the Nigerian currency had closed at 371/dollar the previous week, after rising to 374/dollar from 382/dollar.

Reuters reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been intervening on the official market to try to narrow the spread between the official interbank and black markets.

It is also understood that the country’s apex bank has sold over $4bn since February, improving dollar supply and providing support for the naira.
Also lending voice on the development, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, said there were plans by the apex bank to make necessary interventions in the forex market this week, in line with its earlier resolve to achieve forex rates convergence and liquidity in the market.

Currency experts and analysts have said they expect the naira to be stable across the board in the near term on increased dollar supply to both the official interbank window and the black market.
Also, the recent gains recorded by the local unit have brought the CBN closer to its plan to achieve rate convergence.

However, economic experts have said that whichever way the regulator wants to achieve this convergence – either around the lower band of N305/dollar, mid-point band of N320/dollar or around the upper band of around N360/dollar – the country has a huge price to pay.

They further argued that achieving convergence around the official rate of N305/dollar will take a long time as the CBN does not currently possess the stock of forex to push the parallel market rate from the current N380/dollar to the official rate level of N305/dollar.