Naira Weakens in Christmas Day Parallel Market Trading

The naira exchanged to the dollar at 1,233/$ on Monday, Christmas Day trading at the parallel market more commonly referred to as the Black Market, Bureau de Change operators have reported.

The BDC operators who gave details of the trading for the day said the naira which was bought and sold at 1,228/$ and 1,233/$ exchanged at the same value on Friday, December 22, 2023.

Figures posted on the trading platform, Abokifx, one of the country’s more reliable platforms for foreign exchange dealers showed that the Pound Sterling was bought and sold at 1,550/ £ and 1,565/ £, while Euro was 1,290/€ and 1,305/€ respectively.

The Punch quoted a BDC operator in Lagos, Kamarudeen Ibrahim as saying “The naira traded at 1,220/$ a week earlier, but weakened to 1,233/$ by the end of the week.”

The newspaper quoted another BDC operator, Akeem Yusuf, as saying “The naira was sold for 1,233/$ on Friday; Today Monday, it did not change because people are not buying.”

The development showed that the naira weakened slightly at the parallel market by 1.1 per cent or N13.

However, in the official Investor & Exporter forex window, the naira appreciated slightly on Friday, according to figures obtained from the FMDQ.

The figures showed that the naira closed at 889.63/$ on Thursday, appreciated slightly by 0.42 per cent or N3.75 to close at 885.88/$ on Friday.

Trading commenced at the official market at N915/$ and reached a high of N1,248/$ before closing at N885.88.

The market recorded a total turnover of $92.16m on Friday.