The naira slid to 405 against the United States dollar on the parallel market on Friday amid tight supply of the greenback. This was despite a series of currency forwards sold by the Central Bank of Nigeria this week aimed at clearing demand for the US currency on the official market, traders said.
The local unit had dropped to 397/dollar on Thursday, after hovering between 390 and 395 earlier in the week. Following series of CBN interventions in the interbank market and fresh dollar injections for invisible transactions, the naira had appreciated to 375/dollar. Analysts have reacted to the latest rebound of the dollar, saying speculators might be responsible for the loss recorded by the naira.
“The Nigerian economy is an import-dependent one. It is a question of demand and supply and the issue here has to do with liquidity. However, we cannot rule out the activities of speculators in this regard,” a currency expert at Ecobank Nigeria, Mr. Kunle Ezun, said. The CBN had on Thursday offered $100m in currency forwards to be settled within 60 days.
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