The exchange rate at the parallel market has been projected to surge with Naira hitting N500 per dollar mark this week, having hit a record low of N490 last week.
According to analysts, the Nigerian currency will remain under pressure at the parallel market, where foreign exchange activities are being dominated due to speculations, panic buying and the continuous exclusion of the 41 items from the official platform.
To this end, the apex bank would be forced to continue its daily interventions at both segments of the interbank market- selling treasuries to moderate Naira availability for speculations and foreign exchange supply to help the local currency.
The Naira remained pressured last week as a result of illiquidity in virtually all segments of the foreign exchange market, pushing it to an all-time low of N490/$1 on Thursday and earlier trades on Friday, across Lagos State.
However, the exchange rate at the interbank has remained broadly stable as a result of frequent interventions by the apex bank, as Naira/Dollar spot rate opened the week at N308.50/$ on Monday, depreciated to N312.99/$ by midweek and appreciated to N305.31/$ after CBN’s intervention. On Friday, it closed lower at N311.62/$.
Meanwhile, the money market, starting off relatively liquid last week, with aggregate liquidity level at N113.2 billion, interbank rates- OBB and Overnight, eased 3.5 per cent points and 3.9 per cent points to close the first trading session of the week at 10 per cent and 11.3 per cent respectively.
However, despite the assessed system liquidity level in excess of N149 billion on Tuesday, OBB and Overnight rates rose 5.2 per cent points and 4.7 per cent points to close at 15.2 per cent and 16 per cent respectively, on the back of a N135.4 billion liquidity mop-up by the CBN.
