Naira extended its fall against the U.S. dollar marginally at the official market on Thursday.
According to data posted on the FMDQ website where forex is officially traded, the domestic unit closed at N416.67 per $1 at the close of trade on Thursday, which represents a N0.17 or 0.04 per cent devaluation from N416.50 it closed in the previous session on Wednesday.
In the past fortnight, the currency has been hovering within the price benchmark of N416.00 -N416.67 to a dollar at the spot market.
At the official market on Thursday, the domestic unit hit an intraday high of N410.00 and a low of N444.00 before closing at N416.67 at the close of trade.
Parallel market exchangers at Uyo traded the naira with the hard currency at N573.00 and sold at N580.00 to a dollar on Thursday.
Similarly in Abuja Street market, currency dealers said they exchanged at N573.00 and sold at N575.00 per $1 on Thursday. A parallel market (street market) is characterised by noncompliant behaviour with an institutional set of rules. The Central Bank of Nigeria has consistently maintained that the parallel market represented less than one percent of foreign exchange (FX) transactions and should never be used to determine Nigeria’s naira/dollar exchange rate.
