The naira to dollar exchange rate weakened on Friday, November 29, 2021, as it sold for N480 to one dollar at the parallel market/black market.
This is an indication that naira depreciated in value by N2 when compared with its value of N478/ dollar the previous day.
The exchange rate at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange (NAFEX) window however appreciated slightly to N394.13 to one dollar on Friday as against N394.33 the previous day.
Meanwhile, a survey conducted by Bloomberg showed that analysts expect the Central Bank of Nigeria to devalue the naira by as much as 10 percent this year amid lingering dollar shortage.
Views of 17 survey participants gathered by Bloomberg indicated that eight of them predicted a devaluation of between five percent and 10 percent this year.
Five estimated a devaluation of more than 10 percent and the remaining four predicted a markdown of as much as five percent.
The median of analysts’ estimates project the naira at 426.5 per dollar by the end of 2021, from around 393 on Wednesday.
Due to dollar shortage occasioned by declined oil price and exports in 2020, the CBN devalued naira twice.
“If you don’t have sufficient dollars, the idea that you’re controlling the naira is a fiction,” said Andrew Nevin, a partner and chief economist for Nigeria at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “It is impossible to get sufficient investment for the economy to grow above six per cent without a unified exchange rate.”
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The official exchange rate is N379 to one dollar.
In order to improve foreign exchange inflows into the country, the apex bank had directed that all diaspora remittances should be received only in foreign currency and carried out by licensed International Money Transfer Operators alone.
The CBN threatened to withdraw the licences of operators that failed to comply with its guidelines.
The plan of the financial regulator to unify the exchange rate at the NAFEX Market in order to generate more forex revenue had not materialised since it was announced in August 2020.
