The naira closed out the trading week broadly stable, with the official market rate settling at ₦1,368.22 to the dollar and the gap with the parallel market narrowing to its tightest level in days.
At the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM), the naira traded within a familiar ₦1,36x band on Friday, continuing a pattern of limited volatility that has held for much of the past week. The rate, derived from the volume-weighted average of completed transactions in the official window, has fluctuated modestly between roughly ₦1,362 and ₦1,368 since the start of August.
In the parallel market, dollars changed hands at approximately ₦1,405 on Friday, a premium of about ₦37 over the official rate. That spread marks a meaningful tightening from earlier in the week, when the gap between the two markets widened to as much as ₦62 on Thursday amid stronger retail demand for foreign currency.
The week’s trading was not without turbulence. Wednesday and Thursday saw the naira post back-to-back depreciations in the official market even as external reserves climbed to $52.01 billion on August 5—a divergence that underscores how reserve accumulation alone hasn’t fully insulated the currency from day-to-day demand pressures. By Friday, however, the official rate had recovered toward its earlier levels, suggesting the softening was more of a short-term wobble than the start of a new trend.
Currency dealers attributed the parallel market’s persistent premium to continued demand from importers, travelers, and other retail users, while supply from exporters and autonomous sources has helped keep the official window comparatively stable. Analysts note that the spread between the two markets remains far narrower than the wide disparities recorded in 2024 and much of 2025, pointing to gradual convergence following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s ongoing foreign exchange reforms.
Looking ahead, market watchers say the naira’s trajectory will hinge on a familiar set of variables: the pace of foreign portfolio inflows, the level of external reserves, and crude oil receipts, which remain Nigeria’s dominant source of dollar supply. Continued CBN intervention and tighter monetary conditions are also expected to remain a stabilizing force in the sessions ahead.
