At the end of August 2024, the Nigerian Naira ranked among the worst-performing currencies in sub-Saharan Africa.
This was revealed in the latest edition of the World Bank’s Africa’s Pulse report, which indicated that the Naira’s decline is comparable to that of the Ethiopian Birr and South Sudanese Pound in the region.
The report attributed the Naira’s depreciation over the past few months to the rising demand for dollars and limited dollar inflow.
As of August, the Naira had lost approximately 43 percent of its value.
By that time, the Ethiopian Birr, Nigerian Naira, and South Sudanese Pound were identified as some of the poorest-performing currencies in the region.
The Nigerian Naira has continued to lose value, experiencing a year-to-date depreciation of around 43 percent by the end of August.
The report explained that the Naira’s decline is attributed to increased demand for US dollars in the parallel market, driven by financial institutions, money managers, and non-financial end-users, along with limited dollar inflows and slow foreign exchange allocations to currency exchange bureaus by the central bank.
According to the report, the Naira significantly weakened on Tuesday, trading at N1658.97 per dollar, down from N1552.92 on Monday.
Over the past few months, the Naira has persistently fluctuated against the dollar in the foreign exchange market, even with interventions from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Nigeria’s inflation rate climbed to 32.70 percent in September, up from 32.15 percent in August 2024.
Despite these challenges, the World Bank forecasts economic growth in Nigeria at 3.3 percent for 2024, increasing to 3.6 percent in 2025-26.
