The Goldman Sachs Group, Incorporation which is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm and provides a wide range of financial services for corporations, financial institutions, governments and individuals disclosed that the Naira performed better than other currencies in April. This was in its latest report on Nigeria’s economic realities.
The report further suggests the Nigerian currency will exchange below N1,000 per Dollar in the coming months.
Last Friday, we saw Naira hit a four-month high of N1,142 per US dollar at the official foreign exchange (FX) market as dollar supply increased after the holidays.
Yesterday – the 15th of April, 2024, The NAFEX rate appreciated by 2.89% at N1205 per dollar, while the Bureau-de-change rate appreciated by 0.63% at N1,108 per dollar.
Goldman economists had in February predicted that the naira would strengthen to N1,200 per dollar this year. They also said that they see it potentially advancing beyond that level after a raft of measures by the central bank.
Despite seeing its first sustained rally since the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) abandoned the fixed exchange rate regime, there is the tendency that the current momentum can only be maintained if policymakers do not deviate from their current course.
The Central Bank of Nigeria in the last two months has raised the monetary policy rate by 600 points at policy meetings in February and March, took steps against Binance ( a cryptocurrency platform) and have also taken steps to ease the local scarcity of dollars that fanned volatility and forced companies to the parallel market. Furthermore, the CBN has cleared a backlog of unsettled dollar purchase agreements estimated at $7 billion.
