Naira records marginal gain, closes at 368/dollar

The naira recorded a marginal gain at the parallel market on Tuesday, closing at 368/dollar.

The local unit had closed at 370/dollar on Monday, the same rate it closed on Friday.

On the back of declining dollar supply by the CBN, the naira has been recording gradual depreciation.

The local unit, which used to hover between 360 and 365, has been trading between 367/dollar and 370/dollar in recent weeks.

The Association of Bureau De Change Operators has said the CBN needed to converge the exchange rates in order to stabilise the local currency.

This, they said, would help to stem the tide of the depreciating naira.

The President, ABCON, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, maintained that a single market rate, among others, was required to reverse the depreciating trend of the naira.

He posited that an apparent devaluation of the interbank market rate was having a negative impact on the naira.

Gwadabe noted that investors were uncomfortable with the prevailing multiple rates in the market, adding that multiplicity of rates could engender currency speculation and round tripping.

He said that the demand for foreign exchange by pilgrims was putting the naira in difficulty.

The ABCON chief urged the regulatory authorities to work towards achieving a single market rate.

The naira is gradually relapsing into depreciation after several weeks of appreciation fueled by the aggressive interventions of the CBN at the foreign exchange market.

The naira had exchanged between N360 and N365 to the dollar for about four months before it started depreciating, exchanging between N367 and N370 to a dollar at the parallel market.

Meanwhile, the naira is, however, expected to appreciate marginally both on the investors’ foreign exchange window and on the black market this week as dollar liquidity is seen rising on the back of offshore inflows.

The naira was quoted at 366.79 per dollar for investors. On the official market window it traded at around 305.90 against the dollar.

The CBN has been injecting the US currency into the market even as dollar liquidity swells with rising investor interest in Nigerian assets.