By John Ikani
The value of Nigeria’s Naira suffered further depreciation against the United States dollar in the unofficial market on Wednesday.
According to data collected from currency dealers, the local unit traded at N1,030 per $1 at the Abuja Zone 4 market.
This indicates a N5.00 decline from the previous rate of N1,025 per $1 on Tuesday.
“We are currently buying at N1,030 per dollar, and it may rise further due to the scarcity of dollars in the market,” said Aliyu, a Bureau De Change operator.
The currency dealers prefer receiving physical dollars rather than account-to-account transfers due to the scarcity of the dollar.
Nevertheless, data from the FMDQ website showed that the official market saw the Naira gaining strength on Tuesday.
The data indicated the Naira closing at N765.83 per $1, compared to N773.54 recorded on Monday.
Over the past four months, the Naira has depreciated by over 50 percent in both the authorized and unauthorized market segments.
This came after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced in June that it was consolidating all forex windows into the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window.
The government move has added pressure on the local currency as many Nigerians and businesses find it challenging to access hard currency for their transactions.
