Naira appreciates to N385/$1 at parallel market

- The Naira has appreciated from N400/$1 to N385/$1 at parallel market

- The local currency also gained N15 against the Euro to close at N410 from N425 and N5 from N500 to N495 against the Pound sterling

- Currency traders have urged FG to inject the huge sums of money recovered from looters into the economy to further prop up the Naira

The Nigerian Naira on Thursday, April 20, appreciated to N385 per Dollar at the parallel market as Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold $20,000 to Bureau De Change (BDCs) for onward sale to small-end users.

The currency also gained N15 against the Euro to close at N410 from N425 and N5 from N500 to N495 against the Pound sterling.

At the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment, the Naira closed at N362 to the Dollar, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro exchanged at N490 and N424, respectively.

While at the official market, it closed flat at 306 per Dollar.

However, currency traders have urged the federal government to inject the huge sums of money recovered from looters into the economy to further prop up the Naira.

Dailysurfers . blogspot. Com recalls that the CBN had injected $280 million into the Foreign Exchange Market on Tuesday, April 18, and on Wednesday, April 19.

The apex bank carried out spot, wholesale interventions in the interbank FOREX market by offering a total sum of $100m to authorized dealers to meet the 7 to 15-day forwards requests of customers.

This was confirmed by the Acting Director Corporate Communications Department (CBN), Isaac Okorafor, who disclosed that the banks and authorized dealers were only able to pick up $68.51 million.

Okorafor attributed the inability of the authorized dealers to fully subscribe to the CBN to a surfeit of forex in the system, which may lead to further appreciation of the Naira.