The pressure on the local currency intensified on Thursday as one dollar traded for N410 at the black market.
Foreign exchange users are buying up the dollar to hedge against potential devaluation of the naira as the price of oil has slumped below $34 per barrel.
Investigations show that dollar was quoted at N410/$ at Apapa, Lagos, while in Festac area of the State, it closed at N400/$.
In the long term the naira depreciates against the US dollar in line with the difference in inflation between the two currencies. Trying to stop the naira from depreciating has proven a forlorn activity, according to Coronation Merchant Bank Limited.
The bank believes that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would keep the exchange rate at close to N362.50/$ for most, if not all, of 2020. But the effect the bank said would to add pressure on the naira as its fair value slips against the US dollar.
