October 04, (THEWILL) – Turnover on the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) window of the Nigerian exchange market rose to $1.89 billion in September 2023, from $1.87 billion in the previous month (August) according to THEWILL daily tracking of the naira performance on the FMDQ website. This represents a 1.01 percent rise during the period.
Turnover on the I&E window has reflected the volatile currency trend since the abolition of multiple segments of the exchange market on June 14, 2023 which led to a 63 percent devaluation of the naira.
The local currency now trades on the average of N750/$ at the I&E window against N472/$ before the forex reform, while the parallel market rate rose from N768/$ prior to the segments’ unification to N995/$ as of September 30.
There were 20 trading days during the month with September 12, recording the lowest turnover of $42.26 million while the highest turnover occurred on September 21, with $218.68 million.
The forex market has been battling with scarcity of dollars since the new government introduced a new regulation as part of the reform to reposition the economy amid a significant shortfall in oil production.
The country has struggled to meet the OPEC oil production quota in the past few years, robbing it the opportunity to benefit from the elevated oil prices, which should shove up the reserves. The severe FX shortage has made the naira maintain a depreciation trend.
Financial analysts say the country’s focus should be tilted towards improving oil and non-oil exports to boost FX supply in the interim. They believe that once the FX inflow improves, the outrageous speculative FX demand, pulling down the naira, should wane.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
