The Naira recorded its first depreciation in more than a week, closing at N1,469/$1 on Friday, October 3, 2025.
This comes after the currency had maintained steady gains, with Thursday’s rate of N1,464.85/$1, which is the currency’s strongest performance so far this year.
Data published on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) website shows that the naira’s latest slip ended a streak of resilience that began after September 23, 2025, when it weakened to N1,493.2/$1, down from N1,491.49/$1 the previous day.
Despite Friday’s slight depreciation, the naira’s overall performance in recent weeks has been relatively positive.
Recall that, on September 30, the currency closed at N1,478/$1, representing a sharp rally from its opening level of N1,527.9/$1 at the start of the month.
Foreign reserves performance
During the week, the external reserves rose to $42.4 billion, up from $42.3 billion recorded at the end of September 2025.
According to the CBN data, the reserve has been on an upward swing since the 14th of July 2025.
The closest the external reserve has gotten to the present figure was on September 27, 2019, when it hit $41.992 billion.
Some currency traders attribute the naira’s recent stability to the CBN’s sustained intervention in the foreign exchange market, alongside measures aimed at curbing speculative trading and boosting dollar inflows.
In his 65th Independence Day address, President Bola Tinubu restated his administration’s commitment to sustaining forex reforms. He said, “The Naira has stabilised from the turbulence and volatility witnessed in 2023 and 2024. The gap between the official rate and the unofficial market has reduced substantially, following FX reforms and fresh capital and remittance inflows. The multiple exchange rates, which fostered corruption and arbitrage, are now part of history. Additionally, our currency rate against the dollar is no longer determined by fluctuations in crude oil prices.”
The CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, earlier echoed this commitment.
He highlighted the CBN’s overarching monetary policy objective of taming inflation and driving it down to single digits, a goal.
What you should know
In December 2024, President Tinubu, during his budget presentation speech, said the 2025 budget was based on the projections that inflation would decline from the current rate of 34.6 per cent to 15 per cent, while the exchange rate would improve from approximately 1,700 naira per US dollar to 1,500 naira.
Several experts expressed doubts about President Tinubu achieving the targets.
In September, CBN reduced the MPR by 50 basis points, lowering it from 27.5 per cent to 27 per cent.
Alongside the MPR cut, the MPC narrowed the asymmetric corridor around the benchmark rate to +250 and -250 basis points, from the previous +500/-100 basis points.
The Committee retained CRR for commercial banks at 45 per cent, while that of merchant banks was set at 16 per cent.
