Market News
Nigeria's naira firms after central bank clears FX backlog - REUTERS
ABUJA, March 22 (Reuters) - Nigeria's naira firmed to 1,312.51 per dollar during mid-day trades on Friday, LSEG data showed, after the central bank said late on Wednesday it had cleared its entire verified foreign exchange backlog.
The naira, which has hit repeated lows since a devaluation in January, its second in less than a year, traded at 1,301 naira per dollar at 1328 GMT.
The central bank on Wednesday said it had paid commercial bank customers $1.5 billion to settle outstanding obligations that put the local currency under pressure.
The naira last month fell to a low of 1,778.25 to the dollar, weighed down by high demand for the U.S. currency and outstanding forwards on the currency that needed to be settled by the central bank.
Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Toby Chopra and Tomasz Janowski
