Naira gains ground against dollar in parallel, official markets

The naira strengthened against the US dollar in both the parallel and official foreign exchange markets on Friday.

In the parallel market, the local currency closed stronger, moving from Thursday’s rate of N1,570 to N1,565 per dollar.

The official Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM) also saw a slight improvement, with data from the Central Bank of Nigeria showing the naira trading at N1,534.9 to the dollar compared to N1,535 the previous day — marking a marginal one-kobo gain.

As a result, the gap between the parallel and official market rates narrowed to N30.1 from N35 recorded on Thursday.

Despite Friday’s uptick, the naira still recorded weekly losses of N1.1 in the official market and N10 in the parallel market against the greenback.