CBN governor speaks as Naira free fall continues against US dollar, exchange rate nears N1,000/$ at official market

Nigerian currency, the naira depreciated  in value to N927.19 per dollar on Friday, December 1, 2023 at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), which is the official place for exchanging the country’s currency.

This rate is 11.40% lower than the N832.32 recorded the day before.

According to data from FMDQ Securities Exchange, a platform overseeing foreign exchange trading in Nigeria, the naira’s value ranged from a high of N1,160 to a low of N701 during the day.

FMDQ reported that trading started at N815 to the dollar and ended at N927.19. The total amount of money exchanged at the official window on that day was $110.14 million.

Meanwhile, Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), had said together with his team, he has been focused on stabilising the naira and reining in inflation.

“We have critically reviewed the effectiveness of the central bank’s monetary policy tools and have spent time fixing the transmission mechanism to ensure the decisions of MPC meetings result in desired objectives.

“For quite some time, there has been a dislocation of our monetary transmission mechanisms rendering the MPC meetings largely ineffective.”

Cardoso said the measures have already started to yield results, as excess liquidity in the banking system has significantly reduced.