The Naira, the official currency of Nigeria, continued to decline in value against the US dollar and is currently trading at its lowest level ever.
According to data from FMDQ Securities, on Tuesday, September 6, trading in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) market, Nigeria’s official foreign exchange market window, closed at N436 per dollar, the Naira’s lowest level since 2022.
After closing at an 8-month low on Monday at N434.7 per dollar, today marks the second consecutive day of record-breaking depreciation.
As Nigeria struggles to diversify and boost foreign exchange inflows, the depreciation of the naira has been attributed to the dollar shortage.
According to the Tuesday rate, the Naira has lost 3.21% of its value compared to the N422 quoted on the first trading day of the year.
The Naira experienced significant depreciation on the parallel market, also known as the black market, where currency dealers on Tuesday sold to buyers at N710 per dollar.
The local currency has depreciated by 20.42 per cent at the black market from N565/$ at the beginning of the year.
Meanwhile, a new report has ranked Naira as one of the worst performing currencies in the world against the US dollar.
According to the latest ranking by Hanke’s Currency Watchlist, Naira is the 11th worst-performing currency in the world.
The rating, which was as of September 2, 2022, also put the Venezuelan Boliver in the number one spot as the worst-performing currency globally, while the Zimbabwean RTGS Dollar is number two.
The Lebanese Pound, the Sudanese Pound and the Syrian Pound occupy the third, fourth and fifth spots, respectively.
West African neighbour currency, Ghana Cedi, is in the 13th position, while the currency of war-torn Ukraine, Hryvnia, ranks 14th among the list of 19 currencies.