Naira records first depreciation against Dollar in months amid FX reserves decline

The Naira recorded a marginal depreciation against the Dollar in the foreign exchange market for the first time since March 2024 amid the decline of FX reserves.

FMDQ data showed that the Naira dropped after months of stability to N1,148.14 per Dollar on Tuesday from N1,136.04 on Monday.

This represents N12 or 1 per cent depreciation compared to the N1,136.04 recorded on Monday.

Similarly, the parallel market depreciated to N1,100 per Dollar in the parallel market, from N1,050 per Dollar on Monday.

The Naira recorded a N50 depreciation against the Dollar in the black market.

The last time the Naira recorded a loss at the foreign exchange market was on March 9, when it dropped to N1627.40 per Dollar.
However, the Naira had recorded a steady appreciation for months amid the Central Bank of Nigeria’s efforts to defend the currency.

To this end, the Naira became the best-performing currency in April, according to Goldman Sachs.

On two occasions in recent months, CBN had sold USD to the Bureau De Change operators at a benchmarked rate, closing the gap between the official and parallel market rates.

Meanwhile, the country’s FX reserves had been depleted to $32.29 billion on April 15, 2024, from $34.45 billion on March 18.

The development comes amid declined crude oil revenue in March.

Nigeria’s crude oil production dropped to 1.23 barrels per day in March from 1.32 bpd in February.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian government had vowed to ramp up production to boost revenue in the coming months.