By Our Reporter
The Naira gained slightly against the U.S. dollar at the I&E window of the foreign exchange market on Wednesday, data posted on the FMDQ Security Exchange where forex is officially traded showed.
However, the currency rate remained unchanged on the black market.
Naira closed at N408.75 at the trading session of the I&E window, which the Central Bank of Nigeria has confirmed is now the official window of the foreign exchange market. This represents N1.05 or 0.26 per cent increase from N409.80 the rate at which it closed at the previous session on Tuesday.
The gain occurred as the naira saw an intraday high of N394.00 and a low of N414.00, before closing at N408.75 on Wednesday.
The slight gain witnessed by the local currency became pronounced as turnover rose by 4.98 per cent, with $34.76 million recorded as against the $33.11 million posted on Tuesday.
However, the local unit maintained a similar spot it traded at the previous session on the unofficial market, data posted on abokiFX.com, a website that collates parallel market rates in Lagos showed.
According to the data posted, the currency again closed at N486.00 on Wednesday. The same rate it exchanged with the greenback in the previous session on Tuesday.
This leaves the spread between the unofficial market and the I&E window exchange rate at N77.25, which translates to a gap of 15.90 per cent.