Naira on Friday strengthened against the dollar, gaining 22.13 percent (N290) agaist the dollar to steady at N1,020 on Friday from the peak of N1,310 on Thursday last week on the black market.
Read also: Naira gains at official, steadies at N1,170 on black market
Speculators are now offloading the dollars they have been hoarding, following news about government plans to increase liquidity in the market.
Wale Edun, the finance minister said in October 23, 2023 that Nigeria is expecting as much as $10 billion in new foreign currency inflows in the next few weeks to ease acute dollar shortages in the foreign exchange market.
The CBN has started clearing the foreign exchange (FX) backlog and delivered on over 75 percent to 80 percent of outstanding matured FX forwards in some specific banks.
The pressure on the foreign exchange market eased on Tuesday and Wednesday as naira appreciated against the dollar at the official market.
After trading on Wednesday at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), naira strengthened further by 3.59 percent and 17.96 percent on Tuesday.
On Thursday naira depreciated against the dollar, losing 0.92 percent as the dollar was quoted N793.28 as against N786.02 on Wednesday.
Read also: Naira to appreciate on black market – Analysts
With the current rates, exchange rate spread between the official and parallel market has widened by N226.72 per dollar. As of Wednesday, October 4, 2023, the exchange rate gap between the official and parallel market widened by 243.79.
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