Naira appreciates further to N791.75 per dollar at the official market

The Nigerian naira appreciated massively against the dollar on Friday, 17th November 2023, closing at N791.75/$1 at the official market.

According to data from the NAFEM where forex is officially traded, the domestic currency appreciated 6.24% to close at N791.75 to a dollar at the close of business on Friday.

This represents an N49.39 gain or a 5.24% increase in the local currency compared to the N841.14 it closed on Thursday.

The intraday high recorded was N1120/$1, while the intraday low was N701/$1, representing a wide spread of N419/$1.

According to data obtained from the official NAFEM window, forex turnover at the close of the trading was $157.78 million, representing a 23.60% decline compared to the previous day.

Similarly, the naira appreciated in the parallel market in the last three days.

According to Aboki FX, the naira maintained its consistency even as it appreciated marginally against the United States dollar.

While the market closed at N1140, on Monday at the parallel market, it appreciated on Tuesday and closed at N1,135. The parallel market, however, maintained consistency by closing at N1,135 on Wednesday and Thursday.

A black market operator, Saidu Abdulrahman, who spoke with our Correspondent ,said the dollar sells for N1,050 while they buy at N1,020, showing another significant appreciation in the black market.

However, speaking on sustainability of the rise in naira value against the US dollar, the chief executive officer, Cowry Asset Management Limited, Johnson Chukwu, said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), should continue to make the market liquid.

According to him, sufficient supply of foreign exchange into the market will drive up the value of the naira and crash the value of FX, especially the US dollar.

He stated further that there would be liquidity in the market when there is improvement in the country’s crude oil production.

“Whenever the CBN improves supply into the market, naira will appreciate at FMDQ and whenever the supply is not sufficient enough to meet demand, it will depreciate. Basically, the CBN is the key leader because right now the market has no commercial viability. We don’t have a situation where the supply will be enough to meet demand in the autonomous Market so CBN intervention largely determines what happens in the market.

“Liquidity will come when we have improved crude oil production. That’s the fastest route to get liquidity sufficient enough to clear arrears.

“The only thing is to get more liquidity and that will be through the improvement in crude oil production or government access borrowing like they are planning to do now,” he stated.

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