The naira on Tuesday dropped in value to N485 from N484 against the dollar and N600 from N590 against the British pound at the parallel market. At the official side of the market, the naira depreciated from N305 to N315 per dollar, while the pound went for N401.
This is just as Nigeria plans to sell N95 billion ($302 million) worth of bonds on December 14, its last debt auction for the year, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Tuesday.
However, the local currency maintained the N510 per Euro as it was on Monday, December 5.
Some dealers have attributed the fall of the naira to the recent crackdown in the parallel market against currency traders.
It should be remembered that Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, in an interview with Reuters, said “his office was working with the central bank to make the foreign exchange market more flexible and more reflective of actual demand and supply.”
In the same vein, the DMO said it would sell N35 billion of a bond maturing in 2036, N25 billion of paper maturing in 2026 and N35 billion of debt maturing in 2021, using the Dutch auction system.
Results of the auction are expected to be released on the following day. All the bonds on offer are reopening’s of previous issues the debt office noted.