January 03, (THEWILL) – In what points to the continued roller-coaster regime for the naira in the new year, the local currency slumped to N988.46 to a dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday, January 2, 2024.
The naira, which has been ranked among the worst performing currencies in the world, lost N81.35, or 8.9 percent of the value compared with the N907.11 to a dollar it closed on December 29, to end the 2023 year.
With a turnover of $15.38 million, the official forex market opened the year with the least volume of activities since the floating of the naira on June 14, 2023.
It also represents an 82.7 percent decline from $89.30 million turnover recorded in the previous trading.
After an indicative opening of N915.67 on Tuesday, the intra-day rate hit N1,130 before the equilibrium settled at N988.46, according to data by the FMDQ on its website.
The parallel market was N1,210 to the dollar on Tuesday, against N1,200 on December 29, 2023.
The naira had been ranked as one of the worst performing currencies in the world, following a massive decline witnessed during the last trading week of December, 2023.
According to Bloomberg, naira sit in the bottom three of 151 currencies tracked after depreciating by 55% to N1,043 per dollar as of Thursday, 28th December 2023. Similarly, the exchange rate in the streets was N1,208 to the dollar.
Lebanese pound and the Argentine peso topped the list, according to Bloomberg’s analysis, placing the naira third among the bewitched currencies in 2023.
The report also cited that the naira depreciation was triggered by President Bola Tinubu elimination of fuel subsidies on assumption of office in May 2023.
About the Author
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.
