Naira Appreciates to N1,550/$1 at Parallel Market

There was a public holiday yesterday in Nigeria, which continues today to mark the end of Ramadan, a 30-day fast observed by Muslims across the globe.

The holiday ease the pressure on the local currency on Monday as most of the forex hawkers were at home for the Eid al-Fitr.

Business Post reports that the Naira gained N5 against the United States Dollar during the trading session to close at N1,550/$1 compared with the preceding session’s value of N1,555/$1.

This newspaper gathered that a few FX traders out for business yesterday did not have much to do because of the holiday declared by the federal government.

“It was a quiet day for us today (Monday. We did not see many customers to buy Dollars from us. It is the usual occurrence when there is a public holiday. We hope things will return to normal from Wednesday,” a forex trader, Mr Abubakar Ahmed, who spoke with Business Post, said.

The official market, known as the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), did not open for business because of the Eid al-Fitr celebration.

It last opened its doors for business last Friday, when it gained 65 Kobo or 0.04 per cent against the greenback to quote at N1,538.26/$1, in contrast to Thursday’s exchange rate of N1,538.91/$1.

The appreciation happened as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) boosted forex liquidity to stabilize the market with about $1 billion last month.