Despite disbursing a whopping $15.3 billion into the economy to stabilize the Naira exchange rate in the official market in 2022 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) , the local currency depreciated against the dollar in 2022, as demand overwhelms both the official and black markets.
In the official market, the naira depreciated by -9.18 per cent in value, having opened last year with N422/$1, closed 2022 at N461.50/$1 as at Friday, December 30, 2022.
Also, in the black market, the dollar appreciated by 30.9 per cent, pushing the exchange rate to N740/$1 at the end of last year, significantly above the N565/$1 it began the year with.
Meanwhile, the exchange rate between the naira and the US dollar at the black market depreciated on Wednesday, trading at an average of N747/$1. This represents a 1.63 per cent fall compared to N735/$1 maintained in the last three trading sessions.
According to the monthly and quarterly economic reports by the central bank, $15.3 billion was injected between the first quarter and first month of the fourth quarter of last year.
Between January to March, the central bank disbursed $4.86 billion, “Total foreign exchange sales to authorised dealers by the bank, at $4.86bn, decreased by 5.8 per cent, compared with the previous quarter’s level,” the CBN report reads.
But this amount fell between April and June, as the apex bank could only supply $4.81 billion, “Total foreign exchange (forex) sales to authorised dealers by the bank at $4.81 billion, decreased by 0.9 per cent, compared with the level in the preceding quarter.”
Also, in the third quarter covering July to September, the disbursement dropped to $4.18 billion.
“Total foreign exchange sales to authorised dealers by the CBN decreased in the review period. Foreign exchange sales at $4.18 billion, decreased by 13.1 per cent, below the level in the preceding quarter,” the financial regulator said.
