The naira closed out July on a weaker footing, slipping to ₦1,368.22 per dollar at the official window on the final trading day of the month, according to Central Bank of Nigeria data.
The closing print marked a depreciation of roughly ₦1.50, or 0.1 percent, from Thursday’s ₦1,366.72/$1, extending a run of gradual losses that stretched across five consecutive sessions in the final week of July. The pullback stood in contrast to the relative calm that had defined much of the month, when the local unit traded in a comparatively tight band.
Day-range data on the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market showed the naira oscillating close to the ₦1,366–₦1,370 mark through the week, with Friday’s session settling just above ₦1,368. The parallel market moved in step, with dealers in Lagos quoting the dollar at roughly ₦1,412 to ₦1,422 for buying and selling respectively, keeping the spread between official and street rates within the ₦40–₦55 range that has broadly held through July.
Analysts attribute the late-month softness to routine end-of-month dollar demand from importers and corporates settling obligations, alongside sustained appetite from individuals seeking foreign exchange outside the banking system. The CBN has continued to lean on its reformed FX framework, built around improved liquidity management and periodic interventions, to keep the spread between the official and parallel windows from widening further, a gap that remains far narrower than the premiums seen during past periods of acute dollar scarcity.
For the month as a whole, the naira’s performance reflects a currency still finding its footing under a liberalized, more transparent price-discovery regime, even as episodic pressure, often concentrated around month-end settlement cycles, continues to test its stability. Traders will be watching the opening sessions of August closely for signs of whether this is a temporary correction or the start of a firmer depreciating trend.
