Nigeria’s official currency, the Naira, continues its downward swing as it depreciated on Thursday to N1,405 per dollar in the parallel market, from N1,375 per dollar on Wednesday.
Similarly, at the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), the Naira didn’t fare any better, depreciating to N900.96 per dollar.
Data from FMDQ group showed that the indicative exchange rate for NAFEM rose to N900.96 per dollar from N882.24 per dollar on Wednesday, indicating N18.76 depreciation for the Naira.
Much more frightening is the widening gap between the official and parallel market exchange rates. On Thursday, the gap widened to N504.04 per dollar, from N492.76 per dollar on Wednesday.
On June 14th 2023, when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced it was abandoning its controlled foreign exchange system in favor of a free-floating one, the CBN’s exchange rate was NGN464.5 for one dollar.
A week later, on the 21st June 2023 it was NGN708.2, which represents a loss of one third of the currency value in one week.
On Thursday, it has crashed to an unprecedented rate of N1,405 per dollar at the parallel market and N900.96 per dollar at the official market.