Nigeria’s currency held its ground on Wednesday, with the official Daily Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM) rate trading in the mid-₦1,400s, even as the parallel market maintained a wider margin, highlighting the continued divide between the country’s formal and informal dollar markets.
At the official window, the NFEM fixing hovered between ₦1,447 and ₦1,449 per US dollar, reflecting volume-weighted averages from authorised dealers on FMDQ and Central Bank of Nigeria platforms. Real-time trading on market dashboards similarly closed around ₦1,446.7.
However, parallel market operators quoted the dollar at roughly ₦1,465 for sales and ₦1,455 for purchases, maintaining a spread of about ₦10 — a situation that continues to challenge businesses and individuals relying on street-level access to foreign currency.
Modest liquidity at the official window helped keep the NFEM rate relatively stable. Yet the persistent divergence with black-market pricing underscores ongoing structural pressures, including elevated importer demand, irregular FX distribution, and the central bank’s measured intervention stance.
Despite the CBN’s recent policy easing to support economic stability, the gap between the two exchange rates remains. The dollar-naira pair has largely traded within the mid-₦1,400s over the past week, with occasional swings driven by shifts in market liquidity and oil-related inflows.
For households and businesses, the implications are mixed. Import-dependent firms and travellers still face higher costs when sourcing dollars outside official channels, while those with access to NFEM or licensed BDC windows benefit from more favourable official pricing.
