Nigeria devalues naira as part of path to single exchange rate

Nigeria adopted the multiple exchange-rate regime to avoid an outright devaluation of the naira.

Nigeria’s central bank devalued the naira by 7.6% against the dollar as authorities in Africa’s biggest oil producer migrate toward a single exchange-rate system for the local currency. The Abuja-based Central Bank of Nigeria replaced the fixed rate of 379 naira to a dollar used for official transactions with the more flexible nafex, also known as the investors and exporters exchange rate, that has averaged 410.25 naira per dollar this year, according to data on its website on Tuesday. “We found out that we were no longer dealing in this so-called CBN official rate for transactions,” Governor Godwin Emefiele told reporters during the monetary policy briefing earlier on Tuesday. “We are still running a managed-float, we are monitoring the market and seeing what is happening for us to ensure that the right things are happening for the good of the Nigerian economy.”