Forex turnover in Nigeria rises to $2.6b amid $950m foreign reserves loss

THE volume of dollars traded (turnover) in the Investors and  Exporters (I&E) window of Nigerian foreign exchange (forex) market rose sharply by 132 per cent month-on-month (MoM) to $2.6 billion in May, 2021 from $1.12 billion in the preceding month of April.

  Analysis of daily transactions in the window as published by FMDQ showed that on a weekly basis, the turnover stood at $467.97 million in the first week of May. 

  In the second week turnover fell by 29 per cent to $334.36 million from where it rose by 53 per cent to $511.37 million in the third week and while the upward trend continued in the fourth week as turnover rose sharply by 142 per cent to $1.24 billion despite official devaluation of the naira in Nigerian  Autonomous Foreign  Exchange (NAFEX) to N410 per dollar from N376 per dollar by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) during the week.

  However, turnover stood at $100.77 million on the last day of the fifth week.

Meanwhile, naira depreciated by N2 in the I&E window in May as the indicative exchange rate for the window rose to N412 per dollar on May 31st from N410 per dollar on May 4.

  On the other hand, the nation’s external reserves fell by $639 million in May. Data from the CBN showed that the reserves fell to $34.242 billion on May 31st from $34.881 billion at the end of April 30th. Overall, the reserves have fallen by $950 million since the beginning of the year.