By Our Reporter
The naira depreciated against the United States dollar across both the parallel and official foreign exchange markets on Monday.
In the parallel market, the naira weakened to N1,382 per dollar from N1,378 recorded at the weekend.
Similarly, the local currency depreciated to N1,331.5 per dollar in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM), compared with N1,330 per dollar recorded at the close of trading last week.
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that the indicative exchange rate rose by N1.50 per dollar, reflecting the naira’s depreciation against the greenback.
The movement also widened the gap between the parallel and official market rates to N50.5 per dollar, from N48 per dollar recorded last Friday.
Meanwhile, trading activity in the official market declined significantly during the period under review.
The value of interbank turnover in the NFEM fell by 77.7 per cent to $24.73 million, compared with $111.06 million recorded at the end of last week.
The latest movement comes amid continued fluctuations in the foreign exchange market, with the naira’s performance being closely watched by businesses, importers and other foreign exchange users.