The Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) experienced a significant year-on-year increase in turnover, rising by 74% to $22.88 billion in the first half of 2024 (H1’24) from $13.11 billion in the same period of 2023 (H1’23).
A detailed analysis by Vanguard, based on quarterly data from FMDQ, revealed that the turnover in Q1’24 was $12.64 billion. However, this figure declined by 19% in Q2’24 to $10.24 billion.
Weekly data for June 2024 showed fluctuations in the market. In the first week of June, the turnover was $1.05 billion but dropped by 21.5% to $823.75 million in the second week. The third week saw a further decline of 36.8%, bringing the turnover to $520.43 million. The trend reversed in the fourth week with an 80.6% increase, reaching $940.17 million.
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Naira Depreciates to N1,405/$ in Parallel Market as Forex Challenges Persist
During this period, the naira depreciated across both official and parallel market segments. On June 30th, 2024, the naira traded at N1,505.3 per dollar in NAFEM, a 66% drop from N907.11 per dollar on December 29th, 2023.
In the parallel market, the naira depreciated by 24.7%, moving from N1,215 per dollar at the end of December 2023 to N1,515 per dollar by the end of June 2024. This caused the gap between the parallel market rate and NAFEM rate to narrow significantly to N9.7 per dollar on June 30th, 2024, down from N307.89 per dollar on December 29th, 2023.
Nigeria’s foreign reserves grew by 3.8% during this period, increasing from $32.9 million on December 29th, 2023, to $34.14 million as of June 27th, 2024.
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