Nigeria's currency climbed to its strongest level in nearly a month on Wednesday. The naira hit N1,357.26 per dollar at the official market.
This marks a gain of N3.79 from Tuesday's closing rate of N1,361.05. It's the best performance since May 6, 2026, when the naira closed at N1,357.34.
Better liquidity conditions drove the appreciation. Rising external reserves also supported the local currency's strength.
Activity slowed at the official exchange window over the past two days. Total turnover at the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market fell 14.97 percent to $676.43 million on Tuesday from $795.55 million on Monday.
Deal numbers also dropped to 376 from 392 in that period. Interbank trading weakened further on Wednesday.
Interbank deals declined 19.05 percent to 136 from 168 on Tuesday. Turnover in that segment fell 21.25 percent to $133.73 million from $169.82 million a day earlier.
The black market told a different story. Naira weakened by N8 to N1,393 per dollar on Wednesday.
It had held steady at N1,385 since last Friday. Yet the gap between official and parallel rates narrowed significantly.
Wednesday's spread stood at just N18 per dollar. Tuesday had shown a N24 difference between the two markets.
External reserves continue climbing at a steady pace. CBN data showed reserves jumped to $49.87 billion as of June 2, 2026.
That's up from $48.32 billion on May 7. Growth came to 3.2 percent over that stretch.
Stronger dollar inflows have fueled the reserve gains. January 2026 saw net foreign exchange inflows triple to $9.22 billion.
Improved dollar supply helped. Lower outflows and increased market participation also boosted the figures.
Aggregate inflows jumped 45.24 percent to $12.23 billion in January. December had recorded just $8.42 billion.
Meanwhile, total outflows declined sharply. This produced a net inflow of $9.22 billion versus $3.11 billion the prior month.
Both official and autonomous sources contributed to the improvement. CBN inflows rose to $4.66 billion from $3.69 billion in December.
Autonomous inflows climbed to $7.57 billion from $4.73 billion. Stronger market participation across different segments drove these gains.
