Market data published on the FMDQ website on Wednesday indicated that the naira closed at N1,072.74 against N1,148.14 recorded in the previous market session on Tuesday.

The Naira appreciated significantly against the United States dollar at the official market on Wednesday after the local unit recorded a slight depreciation on Tuesday.

According to market data published on the FMDQ website, naira closed Wednesday at N1,072.74/$1 as against N1,148.14 recorded in the previous market session on Tuesday.

This represents N75.4 or 6.6 per cent appreciation from N1,148.14, the domestic currency closed on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Naira experienced an intraday high of N981.04 and stooped to a low of N1,220.00 to a dollar before closing at N1,072.74/$1.

Meanwhile, the naira recorded a foreign exchange turnover of $189.12 million on Wednesday, the official market data showed.

Addressing the concerns raised about the value of the local currency and Nigeria's foreign reserves on Wednesday, the CBN governor, Olayemi Cardoso, who spoke at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, explained that the movement of the reserves does not correlate with the recent gains recorded by the Nigerian unit in the forex market.

He said the CBN had no intention of defending the Naira.

"It is not in our intention to defend the naira, and much as I have read in the recent few days, some opinions concerning what is happening with our reserves and the CBN defending the naira.

"If you think back to what our overall policy and philosophy has been here, you can see it's counterintuitive. The shift you see in the reserve has nothing to do with defending the naira, and that's certainly not our objective," he said.

Parallel Market

Similarly, the naira has appreciated significantly at the parallel as well recently, amidst CBN intervention and efforts to boost FX liquidity through sales of dollars to BDC operators at a designated rate.

On Wednesday, Bureau De Change operators at the Abuja zone 4 exchanged the dollar at N1,020 and above, the same range it traded in the previous market segment.

While some of the proactive moves by the CBN to stabilise the local currency this past week have seen some progress, inflationary pressures still exist across the country.