Naira tumbles to 390 against USD in the parallel market

The Nigeria Naira continued its slide on Wednesday, dropping to 390 against the USD at the parallel market as foreign exchange scarcity persisted. Naira, which dropped to 382 against the United States dollar on Monday down from the 380 on Friday, had been little-changed on Tuesday, hovering between 381 and 382.

A bureau de change operator told correspondent that Wednesday’s drop was due to increased demand despite the scarcity of the dollar.

“We don’t think it will rise to N400 today, but I don’t know of tomorrow,” he said.

The naira has been under a persistent pressure as dollar scarcity continues to weigh on the local currency at both the parallel and interbank forex markets.

Economic and financial experts said inadequate forex liquidity at the interbank market was taking a toll on the parallel market.

Analysts had predicted that the naira would weaken further against the dollar this week owing to limited dollar supply as foreign portfolio investors continued to stay on the sidelines until the Nigerian economy showed signs of recovering from the impact of currency controls.

Advertisements