By John Ikani
The naira exchanged at 418.33 to the dollar at the Investors and Exporters window on Wednesday, representing a 0.32 per cent depreciation, compared to 417 naira to the dollar recorded on Tuesday.
This represents a N1.33 decline from N417.00 it exchanged in the previous session on Tuesday
The depreciation marked a three-month-low for the naira as it is the weakest rate the local unit exchanged officially with the dollar in the past three months.
Its lowest was on January 5 when it closed at N422.67 to a dollar.
At the parallel market in Abuja, dealers exchanged the naira at N583.00 and sold at N585.00 to a dollar on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has revealed that the naira has recorded a devaluation of over 300 per cent over the past 15 years.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, the Executive Director of NEPC, Dr Ezra Yakusak explained that the preceding years have shown deep susceptibilities in the non-oil export sector of the economy in particular and indeed the Nigerian economy in general.
“This has been mainly due to uncertainties faced from global crude oil prices and the adverse effect of Covid 19. In the last 15 years, the Naira has recorded over 300% devaluation.
“This disturbing trend has been attributed to Nigeria’s inability to earn foreign exchange from other products, due to our mono-cultural economy.”
Yakusak explained further that, “these issues have elicited concerns among stakeholders and practitioners in the non-oil export ecosystem.
