The Nigerian naira increased by N40.49 compared to the previous week in the official foreign exchange market, even though the number of currency transactions went down. Data from FMDQ Securities Exchange Limited shows that the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) saw a 2.5% increase in the naira’s value.
On Friday, October 18, the United States dollar was worth N1,600.78, which was better than the N1,641.27 it was worth the previous Friday. This shows a big improvement during the trading week.
On a daily basis, the naira gained 3.73%, which is equal to N59.71, closing at N1,600.78 on Friday, compared to N1,660.49 on Thursday at NAFEM. The highest value of the naira on Friday was N1,671.50.
The total amount of transactions in the official foreign exchange market dropped by 43.13%, from $616.73 million on Friday, October 11, to $350.72 million on Friday, October 18. However, the daily amount of transactions increased by 6.2%.
On the other hand, the parallel market saw the naira lose 1.2% of its value compared to the previous week, with the dollar selling for N1,720 on Friday.
According to the World Bank’s Africa’s Pulse report, the naira is one of the worst-performing currencies in Sub-Saharan Africa this year, having dropped by about 43% since January.
