Sophia Michaels
Yesterday, the Naira saw a recovery against the US dollar at the parallel market, appreciating to N1280/$, as reported by currency traders according to market information obtained by Nairametrics.
This implied that the Naira appreciated by N120, representing a gain of 8.57 per cent when compared to the N1,400 to a dollar at which it traded on Friday.
Currency traders confirmed that they sold between N1, 280 and N1,300/dollar.
The local currency had, midweek lost a third of its value barely two weeks after strengthening to below N1,000 against the dollar.
It later dropped to N1,400 against the dollar at the black market on reports of fresh demand pressure.
This had made many people to question the impact of the sales of $15.83 million to 1,583 Bureau De Change (BDC) operators by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The apex bank had, on Monday announced the sale of $10,000 to its licensed currency traders nationwide at the rate of N1,021/$1 as part of its plans to aid foreign currency accessibility for qualified end users and stabilise the foreign exchange market.
Currency traders had attributed the recent depreciation of the Naira to market forces as supply had been unable to meet up with the demand.
Meanwhile, a data from FMDQ showed that the Naira continued its downward trend against the greenback at the official foreign exchange window, closing at N1,339.23/$1 on Friday.
This represents a 2.24 per cent depreciation when compared to the N1,309.88/$1 that was reported the previous day.
Recent initiatives by the apex bank had tempered forex scarcity, aiding the Naira’s recovery from an early March rate of N1,617 per dollar to N1,072 per dollar on April 17.
