Naira continues free Fall: Exchanged for N1,506:$ at the parallel market

The Naira’s decline in value continued at the parallel market, with the United States Dollar exchanging for N1506/$ on Monday, compared to N1,410 on Friday. This is despite the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) releasing $500 million to address the backlog of verified foreign exchange transactions. The Naira also depreciated at the official market, trading at N1,349 compared to N891.90/$ the previous day.

It is worth noting that in June 2023, the CBN announced the unification of the foreign exchange market, causing the exchange rate to rise to almost N800/$ from $1/471. Inspite of this and the lapse of 7 months since the policy change and direction, the two rates, official and parralell markets, are yet to merge and unify. While the official rate traded at $1,349/$ the parallel market traded at N1,506/$ yesterday. Despite efforts by the CBN and the Ministry of Finance, the Naira has lost nearly 350% of its value since then. In a statement, the acting Director of Corporate Communications at the CBN, Mrs. Hakama Sidi Ali, acknowledged the management’s efforts to address the situation.