Nigeria’s foreign exchange (Forex) market has come under fresh pressure as scarcity worsens.
Consequently, demand pressures which has been building up since August have compelled huge depreciation of the Naira to N1,660 per dollar in the parallel market. The market had closed high last weekend at N1,645 per dollar, significantly above the N1,625 it closed the previous week.
Dealers who spoke to The Press yesterday attributed the depreciation to the slowdown in the volume of forex that has been coming into the parallel segment of the market since last month.
There has been significant declines in the volume of forex supply at the official segment of the market.
The volume of dollars traded (turnover) in the market yesterday declined by 22 percent to $197.37 million from $254.17 million traded last weekend.
However, the Naira appreciated to N1,580.46 per dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market, NAFEM.
Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative exchange rate for NAFEM fell to N1580.46 per dollar from N1,593.32 per dollar last weekend , indicating N12.86 appreciation for the naira.
Consequently, the margin between the parallel market and NAFEM rate widened to N79.54 per dollar from N51.68 kobo per dollar last week Friday.
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