The naira has appreciated to N386 against the United States dollar as the Central Bank of Nigeria continues to supply dollars into the foreign exchange market.
According to a report by The Punch, the local unit closed at N386/dollar on Friday, having closed at N390/dollar daily in the past one week.
The CBN had supplied over $380m into the forex market a week ago.
According to financial and currency experts, the naira’s outlook remains stable in the near term as the regulator steps up efforts to improve dollar liquidity and achieve exchange rate convergence.
The naira firmed to about 305.60 to the dollar on the interbank market on Friday, up from 305.1/dollar on Thursday.
The Global Economist, Renaissance Capital, Charles Robertson, described the official rate of the naira as a “fair value”, suggesting that the value might need to be weaker to attract foreign investors into the country.
According to him, exchange rate issues are making Nigeria underperform among its peers in East Africa.
He, however, said the country would make a significant improvement in ease of doing business and corruption data over the next one year owing to recent positive steps by the Federal Government.
The CBN has been intervening aggressively since February to try to narrow the spread between the official and black market rates and has sold more than $4bn.