Forex: Turnover in NAFEM rises 74% to $22.88 bn in H1’24

The volume of dollars traded (turnover) in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market, NAFEM, rose year-on-year (YoY) by 74 percent to $22.88 billion in the first half of  2024 (H1’24) from $13.11 billion in H1’23.

Vanguard analysis of quarterly transactions in the market as published by FMDQ showed that turnover stood at   $12.64 billion in the first quarter of 2024 (Q1’24) and fell quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) by 19 percent to $10.24 billion in the second quarter of 2024 (Q2’24).

Meanwhile, weekly analysis of June transactions in NAFEM  showed that turnover stood at $1.05 billion in the first week of June but fell by 21.5 percent, week-on-week, WoW to $823.75 million in the second week.

In the third week, turnover declined by 36.8 percent, WoW   to $520.43 million.

The downward trend reversed in the fourth week when turnover rose by 80.6 percent to $940.17 million.

Naira falls across forex market segments

Meanwhile, the naira depreciated in the official and parallel market segments during the review period.

The naira depreciated by N598.19 or 66 percent   to N1,505.3   per dollar in NAFEM on June 30th, 2024   from N907.11 per dollar traded as at December 29th 2023.

Similarly, the naira depreciated by N300 or 24.7 percent   in the parallel market.

Vanguard gathering from black market traders showed that the exchange rate for the market rose to N1,515 per dollar at the end June 2024   from N1215 per dollar on December 29th 2023.

Consequently, the margin between the parallel market rate and NAFEM rate narrowed  to N9.7 per dollar on June 30th 2024 from N307.89 per dollar   on December 29th 2023.

Meanwhile, the country’s foreign reserve grew by 3.8 percent to $34.14 million as at June 27th 2024 from $32.9 million as at December 29th 2023.