The Nigerian Naira had a remarkable week, gaining strength against the US dollar in both official and black markets by Friday. This improvement reflects the impact of new measures introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stabilize the foreign exchange market.
On Friday, the Naira appreciated from N1,567 per dollar on Thursday to N1,535 per dollar in the official exchange market. This represents a notable gain of N32 in a single day, according to data from the CBN.
In the parallel or black market, the Naira gained even more, strengthening from N1,715 per dollar on Thursday to N1,600 per dollar on Friday. This translates to a massive gain of N115 within 24 hours.
For the week, the Naira recorded a total appreciation of N125 in the official market, thanks to the CBN’s efforts to improve foreign exchange liquidity and efficiency.
The strong performance of the Naira comes after the CBN announced new interventions at the end of November 2024. These include:
- Directing banks to switch to the Bloomberg BMatch system for foreign exchange trading from December 2, 2024.
- Increasing the minimum FX trading limit from $50,000 to $100,000 to encourage larger transactions.
The foreign exchange market remained active, with transaction turnover hitting $175.5 million on Friday. The FMDQ data also showed the Naira traded between N1,480 and N1,700.76 per dollar during the day.
