The Naira lost 96.5 percent in value, year-to-date, as it closed N907.11/$1 at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, December 29, 2023.
This is N445.6 loss (representing 96.5 percent) against N461.5/$1 the local currency opened on January 4, 2023, the first trading day of the year.
The parallel market dropped to N1,215/$ on the last trading day of the year (December 29), representing a value loss of 65.3 percent (N480 difference) against the N735/$1 it opened on January 4, 2023.
Before last Friday’s roller-coaster spot, the Naira had dipped to N1,043.09/$1 on the previous day – signaling a turbulent future for the troubled local currency.
Last Friday’s turnover was $89.30 million against $83.63 million that exchanged hands on Thursday.
The Naira began its turbulent state on June 14, 2023 when the Nigerian government abolished the multiple exchange rate in a radical reform that set the local currency on a record steep slope.
The currency tumbled to N664.04/$1 on June 14, 2023 from N472.50/$1 it traded on the previous day, losing a whopping N192.37 or 40.78 percent.
Coupled with a high inflationary trend that hit 28.2 percent in November, cost of living escalated during the period with an additional four million Nigerians slipping to poverty, according to the World Bank data.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had in December 2022 reported that Nigeria had 133 million people in multidimensional poverty.
Nigeria’s 2024 budget is benchmarked on N750/$1 which experts consider unrealistic given severe prevailing economic headwinds.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
