The exchange rate gap/spread between the official and the parallel market on Friday closed to N99 per dollar as naira fell to an all-time low of N1,099.05/$ at the official foreign exchange (FX) market.

The black market rate was N1,198 per dollar on Friday. With the current rates, the gap between the two segments of the FX market has closed by over 100 percent (5,309.83%) to N99 compared to N1.83 per dollar on June 21, 2023 after the unification of the exchange rate windows by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The spot trading rate further closed the gap between the official spot segment and the parallel market to N22/$. The spot rate was N1,176 as of December 7, 2023 while black market was N1,198/$ as of December 8, 2023.

The CBN on June 14, 2023 collapsed all segments of foreign exchange markets into the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), formerly, the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) forex window.

Read also Naira strengthens further as dollar liquidity rises by 92.92%

All eligible FX transactions in the market shall only be done via the NAFEM window; all other windows cease to exist.

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The NAFEM market functions by a willing buyer, willing seller system, where an entity with demand for FX seeks out another entity with FX to sell at an agreed price through an authorised dealer.

The Federal Government said it targets an exchange rate of N650 to N750 to the dollar by December this year.

This was disclosed by Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the presidential committee on fiscal policy and tax reforms.

Also, JPMorgan, an American multinational financial services firm, has predicted the naira to strengthen to N850 to the dollar by the end of the year.

Tope Fasua, a special adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was reported to have projected that the naira may strengthen further to exchange at N600/$1.

The public has raised concerns over achieving the said target by the end of December, which is going to end in the next three weeks and the fact that the naira is currently as low as N1,1198 per dollar at the unofficial market and around N1,099.05/$ at the official market.

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Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.

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