The naira fell to a record low of N1,400/$ at the parallel market on Thursday despite recent efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria to save the national currency.
With continued dollar scarcity plaguing the country, Bureau de Change Operators confirmed to that the naira touched new depths in the foreign exchange market.
According to the BDC operators, there is currently uncertainty as regards the price of the naira against the dollar due to high demand.
On the official Investor and Exporter window, the naira depreciated by 2.12 per cent to N900.96/$ from the N882.24/$ it closed on Wednesday. Transactions opened at N929.18/$, rose to a high of N1,399/$, and recorded a low of N789/$. Total FX turnover was $115.19m, a 103.52 per cent increase from the $56.60m that was recorded on Wednesday.
The national currency didn’t do better on the cryptocurrency peer-to-peer market where it rose to a high of N1,400/$ too. As of the time of filing this report, the naira was trading on Binance’s P2P platform for N1,395.8/$.
According to Chainalysis, a blockchain firm, Nigeria has one of the largest peer-to-peer exchange volumes in the world.
The naira’s fall has persisted despite the best efforts of the CBN to save it, piling more pressure on the economy and the average Nigerian. Recently, the apex bank announced it has paid $2bn as part of FX backlogs, also the Federal Government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited got a $2.25bn oil-for-cash loan facility from the African Export-Import Bank to boost FX liquidity.
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