Forex traders welcomed Yemi Cardoso, on his first Monday as Acting CBN Governor with the exchange rate trading at around N1000/$1.
The exchange rate between the naira and dollar was quoted for as high as N1,006/$1 on peer-to-peer platforms where forex is sold using cryptocurrency stablecoins.
The first day of the week began with the naira trading just shy of N1,000/$1 on these P2P platforms, only to deteriorate further as the business day came to a close.
Meanwhile, in the parallel market, sources revealed that the exchange rate experienced slight appreciation, rising to around N990/$1 from a figure surpassing N1,000/$1 at the end of the previous week. The exchange rate however remains above N1000/$1 for forex “inflows” which are noncash transactions (wired).
According to some traders, this modest uptick was dictated by market conditions. However, they were quick to caution that this improvement might only be short-lived, particularly given that demand for foreign currency has not diminished.
Turning to the official Investor and Exporter Window, also known by the acronym NIFEX, the exchange rate settled at N773/$1. Interestingly, it reached an intra-day peak of N799.50/$1. The Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Rate, or NAFEX, was also recorded at approximately N759.71/$1.
It’s worth noting that the gap between the official and parallel market rates has widened significantly, standing at around 22.7%. This is substantially greater than the 5-10% differential commonly deemed acceptable by currency experts.
On the topic of forex turnover, there was a notable decline. It plummeted to $64 million, a drastic fall from the $153.7 million observed at the end of trading on Friday, September 22. For further context, the forex turnover was around $54 million on Monday, September 18.
As for Nigeria’s external reserves, they remained stable at approximately $33.2 billion as of September 22, 2023. This stability comes despite statements from the Minister of Finance claiming that Nigeria has $6.8 billion in overdue forward payments.
Other Currencies in Focus:
Naira to Euro exchange rate stood at N1,038/EUR1
Naira to UK Pound exchange rate was N1,250/£1
