The international credit rating agency, Fitch Ratings, has projected that the Nigerian currency, the naira, will end the year at 1,450 to the United States of the American dollar.
This was disclosed by the director of Sovereigns, at Fitch Ratings, Gaimin Nonyane, during a post-sovereign rating webinar on Tuesday focused on Nigeria and Egypt. Earlier in May, Fitch Ratings revised the Outlook on Nigeria’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating to Positive from Stable, and affirmed the IDR at ‘B-’, on the back of reforms in the foreign exchange market, oil industry and monetary policy over the past one year.
Speaking on the fate of the Naira which has struggled since it’s floating in June 2023, Nonyane said, “The Naira is still finding its feet. It is still in price discovery mode. So we would expect a lot of volatility in the near term. However, as I just mentioned, there is the expectation of multilateral donor funding coming in Q3 this year in addition to improved oil receipts to reduce volatility somewhat by Q3 this year.
We project that will average about 1200/dollar this year and end the year around 1450/dollar. And in terms of next year, we see a gradual depreciation, but it also depends largely on the foreign exchange reforms momentum. So, this is our baseline scenario on the basis that the momentum continues at the current pace.”
