An investment management holding company – Afrinvest – in its latest report, has predicted the Naira to depreciate next year to N1,804 per dollar fair value in the official market.
The report is titled: ‘Beyond The Rhetoric: Transforming Reforms to Tangibles’.
According to the report, the projection is predicated on the belief that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may be constrained in the coming months to meet up with foreign exchange demands and anticipated FX volatility.
“We anticipate that exchange rate volatility would persist in 2025, albeit at a modest pace.
“Our prognosis is hinged on the belief that the CBN would be constrained from adequately meeting market demand on a sustained basis, as the recent FX reserves accretion was largely driven by inflows from inorganic sources, including those with stringent conditions on usability,” the report said.
The outlook is coming against the N1,500 per dollar benchmark proposed in the 2025 budget now before the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, reports on Friday showed that the Naira gained in the official market to close at N1,534 per dollar and N1,650 in the parallel market.
Although Naira fluctuations had remained a constant phenomenon in 2024, the introduction of the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS) in October brought relative stability.