The naira is seen depreciating further and may hit the 500 mark to the United States dollar at the parallel market next week as the greenback scarcity persists and the Central Bank of Nigeria cuts supply to foreign exchange operators.
The local currency was trading around N495 to the dollar on the black market on Thursday, compared to 485 per dollar last week due to dollar shortages, traders said.
The naira was quoted at 310.5 to the dollar on the official interbank window on Thursday by commercial lenders.
“There is an acute shortage of dollars in the market because of supply being slashed by half to Bureau de Change operators from international money transfer agents, pushing the naira down,” one trader said.
