The Nigerian naira experienced a slight uptick against the US dollar on Tuesday, climbing to N1,499/ from its previous record low of N1,534/$ on the official Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market.

This represents a 2.3% increase or N35, as reported by FMDQ Exchange, a platform that tracks official foreign exchange trading in Nigeria.

The naira’s depreciation has been a result of the removal of fuel subsidies and the consolidation of the exchange rate market by President Bola Tinubu.

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From May 2023 to February 2024, the local currency weakened from N464.67/$ to N1,490 at the official market. During the same period, it dropped from N763/$ to N1470/$ at the parallel market.

On Monday, the naira reached a new low of N1,534/$, following its previous low of N1,099.05/$ on December 8 and an all-time low of N1,348.63/$ on January 30, 2024.

In the parallel market, the naira continued its upward trend, rising from N1,503 to N1,530 at the close of trading on Monday.

Currency traders, also known as Bureau De Change operators, in Abuja reported that the dollar opened at N1,509/$ and closed at N1,530/$ during intra-day trading, with Ibrahim Taura, a BDC operator in Wuse, Abuja, stating that despite the high rates, demand for the greenback remained strong.

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Nuhu Zakari, another BDC operator at the Abuja airport, disclosed that he bought the dollar at N1,525.

Meanwhile, bank dollar sales saw a significant decline of 54.2%, dropping from $253.77 million on Friday to $116.11 million on Monday, according to the latest data from FMDG. Commercial banks sold a total of $1.97 billion in one week the previous week.