Naira fell significantly against the U.S. dollar at the official market on Tuesday, a day after the currency recorded a meagre gain at the spot market. According to data published on the FMDQ website where forex is officially traded, naira which opened at N427.30 closed at N431.00 to a dollar on Tuesday. This represents a N3.87 or 0.90 per cent devaluation from N427.17 it exchanged in the previous session on Monday. The currency oscillated to an intraday high of N414.00 and stooped to a low of N444.00 before closing at N431.00 per $1 on Tuesday, the second business day of the week. Forex turnover at the market on Tuesday plummeted by 35.40 per cent with $58.03 million posted at the close of market against the $89.79 million recorded in the previous session on Monday.
This is the weakest rate the currency has traded at the Nafex window this year. The new record is 0.2 per cent weaker than the N430.33 weakest rate the currency closed at on 15 July. Amidst forex scarcity, the local currency has been trading at weak rates in recent weeks and months at both the official and parallel market segments. Within the past six months , naira exchanges with the U.S dollar have been in the range of N417 and N430.33 benchmarks before touching a new low of N431.00 at the official market on Tuesday. At the black market, exchangers said the forex scarcity pushed currency dealers to exchange at no specific amount on Tuesday.
“People are buying and selling as they like, I cannot tell you that this is the fixed amount we exchanged today,” said Shuaibu, a currency trader at Uyo.
He said naira was bought and sold between N670 and N685 mark and above.
“The market has scattered, people are just buying and selling anyhow,” he added.
At the Abuja black market, currency dealers said they exchanged the naira with the greenback currency at N670.00 and above to a dollar on Tuesday.
