Naira free fall continues as it weakens 0.9% to N577/$1 at parallel market

The free fall of the Naira has continued as it weakened to N577 per dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange market.

This represents N5 or 0.9 percent depreciation compared to the N572 it traded last week.

The amount was made known by Street traders at the black market in Lagos who spoke to an online media, TheCable on Tuesday and quoted the buying rate of the greenback at N572 and selling price at N577 per dollar.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has over time maintained that the parallel market represents less than one percent of foreign exchange (FX) transactions and should never be used to determine Nigeria’s naira/dollar exchange rate.

Meanwhile, on the official market side, the naira gained by 0.16 percent to close at N416.67 to a dollar on Monday, according to data on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, a platform that oversees official foreign-exchange trading in Nigeria.

Only Last week, Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, said the apex bank will stop the sale of foreign exchange to commercial banks by the end of the year.