ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s naira hit a record low of 1,300 per dollar on the black market on Thursday, online platform abokiFX showed, driven by thin trading volumes on the parallel market and dollar shortages on the official market.
The naira has been in free fall on the unofficial market, where it trades freely, after currency restrictions were lifted on the official market.
Last month, the currency slid past 1,000 naira per dollar on the black market and has continued to weaken.
On Monday, central bank governor Yemi Cardoso said the naira will adjust once rules for market participants are made clear.
Finance Minister Wale Edun also said on Monday that Nigeria was expecting $10 billion in foreign currency inflows in the next few weeks to improve foreign exchange market liquidity.
He said, without elaborating, that the inflows would come from the issuance of instruments in dollars, oil sales and foreign investments.
On the official market, the naira recovered to 775 to the dollar from a record low of 999 it touched last week.
The prospect of foreign exchange inflows has slowed naira’s depreciation on the official market, one trader said. It kept losing ground, however, on the black market due to thin trading.
(Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
