The Naira strengthened to N1,595 per dollar in the parallel market yesterday, showing a significant improvement from N1,610 per dollar on Monday. This marks a N45 week-on-week (WoW) appreciation from N1,640 per dollar last Tuesday.
Despite remaining stable at N1,499 per dollar in the official Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM), the Naira also recorded a N27.3 WoW appreciation, from N1,526.3 per dollar the previous week.
The narrowing of the gap between the parallel market and the official rate is notable, reducing to N96 per dollar from N113.7 per dollar compared to Tuesday last week. This development points to growing alignment between both markets.
The Naira has shown a consistent upward trend since Thursday, January 23rd, when it appreciated in both the parallel and official markets. Traders attribute the rise to weakened dollar demand, partly due to the Chinese New Year holiday.
Furthermore, banks are now reportedly honoring customer requests for Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) and Business Travel Allowance (BTA), a change from earlier months when most banks were not meeting such requests.
Source: Vanguard