By John Ikani
Naira, Nigeria’s legal tender on Tuesday recorded an all-time depreciation against the dollar at the official market known as the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, as the shortage of foreign exchange persists.
FMDQ securities data showed that at the official market, Naira on Tuesday closed at N430, which is a N4.25 or 0.99 per cent devaluation from N425.75 posted in the previous market session on Monday.
The last time Naira exchanged at N430 or above was Thursday, 30th December 2021 at the official market.
Within the past two weeks, it has been trading between the range of N420 and N425 and above the benchmark before getting worst on Tuesday.
Naira’s depreciation on Tuesday was expected given the increase in US interest rate and low forex supply on Tuesday.
Forex supply at the market dropped to a massive $47.56 million.
At the parallel market, also known as the black market, the naira strengthened by N1.00 to close at N614 per dollar compared to N615 opened on Monday morning.
According to reports from the black market in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, dealers were exchanging the naira at N611.00 and sold at N616.00 to a dollar as at Tuesday.
Some of the currency dealers in the street of Uyo, blamed the Naira’s woe on scarcity of the dollar as a result of the account of forex traders being blocked by the federal government.
“What we are seeing now is that the dollars are very scarce and the federal government is blocking our people’s dollar account anyhow,” currency dealers at Uyo street market lamented.
