The naira yesterday firmed up against the US dollar gaining 0.04 kobo at the inter-bank market to close at N157.86/$ as against N157.90/$, the previous day, data from Financial Market Dealers Association (FMDA) have revealed.
Analysts attributed the improvement in naira to the intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) coupled with inflows from oil companies.
The CBN yesterday offered and sold a total of $300 million to 19 successful banks that participated at the bi-weekly Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) at N155.75/$.
However, naira remained stable at the official, bureau de change and parallel markets closing at N155.75/$, N159.5000/$, and N160.0000/$, respectively.
An analyst from Ecobank, who spoke with BusinessDay on phone, said naira is expected to strengthen further on the back of expected dollar sales by oil companies such as Chevron, and Total among others.
HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
