Naira goes down to record low amid new year uncertainties

 This came amid uncertainty about the market outlook as the economy wobbles into a new year.

With the closure rate, naira had sold at a discount of over 15 per cent to a dollar at the official Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange (NAFEX) window last year.

Trading opened last year at N410/$ but the exchange rate fell to about N415/$ as the year rolled by, though it also traded at N415/$ after the Christmas holidays, with extremely wide swings, indicating high volatility of the market.

Last Friday, the Naira started trading on an upswing at N420.67/$ but slid to as low as N445.60/$ by mid-day before it appreciated slightly to close at N435/$. The extremely unpredictable trading session saw the currency vacillating between N400/$ and N445.60/$.

The forward market, which measures the perception about the near-to-medium-term outlook of the Naira moved on a much narrower range of between N452.12/$ and N453.12/$.

Naira, however, has been relatively stable at the parallel market, closing the year at N565/$. As at yesterday, the market still traded around N465/$, suggesting the narrowing of the historic wide differential between the official and black market rates. Some experts have attributed the many manipulations (including round-tripping) in the market to the wide gap between the windows.