Naira continues fall, depreciate to N950/$ in parallel market

The naira yesterday depreciated to N950 per dollar in the parallel market, the lowest level since the introduction of foreign exchange (forex) market reforms by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN on June 14th.

It was gathered from black market traders that the parallel market exchange rate rose by N23 to N950 per dollar yesterday from N927 per dollar on Wednesday, triggered by increasing scarcity of the dollar amidst huge demand.

Similarly, the naira depreciated in the Investors and Exporters, I&E window to N780 per dollar as the indicative exchange rate for the window rose by N21.88 from N758.12 per dollar on Wednesday.

Consequently, the gap between the official and parallel market exchange rates widened to N170 per dollar yesterday from N168.88 per dollar on Wednesday.

The naira has been on a downward trend in the forex market since the CBN reforms of June 14, which includes the elimination of multiple exchange rates in the official market and the introduction of the ‘willing buyer willing seller’ model for exchange rate determination in the I&E window. Vanguard gathered from forex market sources that the CBN measures are yet to stimulate enough supply to clear the increasing demand for dollars in the economy.