Again, naira falls against dollar on I&E window

Naira weakened against the U.S dollar at the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market on Tuesday, data posted on the FMDQ Security Exchange market where currencies are officially traded showed.

The local unit closed at N401.00 at the Tuesday trading session, representing N2.50 or 0.63 per cent devaluation from N398.50 the rate at which it closed at the previous session on Monday.

The local unit depreciated against the greenback currency as turnover contracted further by 15.07 per cent, with $49.07million recorded as against the $57.78million posted on Friday.

The currency of Africa’s biggest economy experienced an intraday high of N390.00 and a low of N422.59 before closing at N401.00 on the spot market (I&E window).

On the parallel market, data posted on abokiFX.com, the unofficial market in Lagos where naira is traded, showed the domestic currency (naira) still closed at N480 to a dollar. The same rate it traded since last week.

This leaves a spread of N79.00 between the unofficial market and the I&E window exchange rates, which translates to a gap of 16.46 per cent .

The domestic currency has been devalued twice since March last year.

Experts says that Nigerias naira would likely depreciate further after the Central Bank of Nigeria weakened the non-deliverable naira forward contracts rates and raised interest rates.

The Nigerian naira weakened on the spot market a few days after the CBN ordered Nigerian banks to close all cryptocurrency-related accounts with effect from Friday last week.

The regulator prohibited all financial institutions from facilitating crypto currency payments in the country.

The CBN’s official rate on Tuesday at the I&E window was still N379 per dollar.