Africa-Press – Nigeria. Naira strengthened against the United States dollar on the parallel market on Wednesday as banks strived to meet foreign exchange demand particularly for Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) customers.
The local currency changed hands at N475 to a dollar compared to the N476 at which it exchanged on Tuesday, according to data from abokiFX.com, which collates rates from traders in Lagos.
At the official spot market also called the Investors & Exporters (I&E) forex window, naira appreciated by 0.68%, closing at N392 per dollar. Naira had exchanged at N394.67 at the previous session.
That leaves the spread between the official rate and the black market rate at N83.
Naira touched an intraday high of N386 to a dollar and a low of N396 before closing at N392.
Forex turnover at the I&E forex window fell by 50.5%, from $236.91 million to $117.23 million, according to data from FMDQ Securities Exchange.
Daily forex sales for last week averaged $169.93 million, signalling a $34.5 million rise over the volume reported in the week before.
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s interventions in the currency market have seen dollar supply to bureaux de change rise to $1 billion since 7th September, when it restarted forex sales.
Nigeria’s recently obtained $1.5 billion loan facility from the World Bank is expected to boost foreign exchange availability across windows.
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