Naira hits record low after central bank adjusts spot rate

The Nigerian naira hit a record low of 466 per dollar on the official market on Thursday, after the central bank weakened the currency on the spot market and at its foreign exchange auction as it tries to address a backlog of demand for foreign currency, traders said.

Nigeria's central bank has been adjusting rates to manage demand for foreign currency against its level of foreign reserves while at the same time intervening on the foreign exchange market to keep the currency stable after it has weakened.

The central bank adjusted rates on Wednesday to 465 naira from 460 naira per dollar, traders said, while it sold hard currency to businesses for raw materials and other imports at 630 naira at its last auction on Friday.

"Generally, the market impression is that (FX) rates are moving up," one currency trader said.

The naira, which trades within a range on the official market, has fallen to successive lows due to dollar scarcity, coupled with the central bank's adjustments to manage the backlog of demand for foreign exchange.

The currency later recovered some ground to trade at 463 naira per dollar on the official market on Thursday.

"At the current level, clients are not getting funds," the trader said. "The appetite is to seek more dollars to meet obligations."

The naira eased to 748 against the dollar on the black market as individuals and firms channel unmet currency demand to informal sources.

By Chijioke Ohuocha, Reuters

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Nigeria overtaken by Angola as top African crude oil producer

Angola has now emerged the topmost crude oil producer in Africa, upstaging Nigeria as the latter’s output level hits a new low.

The direct communication data in the April 2023 monthly oil market report (MOMR) of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) shows that Angola recorded 1.06 million barrels per day (mbpd) crude production in April 2023.

Despite initial optimism, Nigeria’s oil output dropped 23 per cent, month-on-month, MoM, to 999,999 barrels per day, bpd, in April 2023, from 1.3 million bpd in the preceding month of March 2023.

Also, on year-on-year, YoY, Nigeria’s output level indicated a drop of 16.7 per cent to 999,999 bpd in April 2023, from 1.2 million bpd recorded in the corresponding period of 2022.

After a steady decline to about 1.1 mbpd in the second half of 2022, due majorly, to oil theft, Nigeria’s oil output began to recover after a nationwide outcry in the fourth quarter of 2022 hovering at 1.3 million bpd in the first quarter of 2023.

At less than 1.0mbpd, this is the lowest production rate Nigeria has recorded in the year 2023 while Angola’s output shows steady increases.

The OPEC figure is close to that of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the regulatory authority in Nigeria’s petroleum industry, which shows that Nigeria produced 998,602 barrels per day during the period.

The OPEC report further stated that total OPEC-13 crude oil production averaged 28.60 million barrels per day in April 2023, lower by 191,000 barrels per day, month-on-month. Overall, the report showed that crude oil output increased mainly in Saudi Arabia, Angola and Iran, while production in Iraq and Nigeria declined.

OPEC noted in the MOMR that Nigeria’s economy faced challenges in gaining momentum in the first quarter of 2023, with business activity and consumer spending remaining subdued, in addition to high input-cost inflation and lower employment levels compared with 2022.

By Udeme Akpan & Yinka Kolawole, Reuters

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Gunmen free 25 people from Baptist church kidnapping

Heavily armed gangs known locally as bandits frequently carry out mass abductions for ransom in northwest and central Nigeria, holding their captives in camps hidden in forests that stretch across the region.

Armed attackers on Sunday stormed into the Bege Baptist Church in Kaduna State during morning mass and abducted 40 people.

Fifteen managed to escape, while the gunmen left with 25, Reverend Joseph Hayab, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna State said.

Eleven more hostages were released by their captors, bringing the number still detained to 14, Hayab told AFP on Wednesday.

"The number of those kidnapped from the church has reduced 14 after the gunmen set free 11 out of the 25 they took away," said Hayab, who is also a Baptist priest.

"They abandoned or released those they found difficult to manage due to health challenges, fatigue or age," he said.

The latest was a woman who was so exhausted that the abductors mistook her for dead and abandoned her in the bush along with her baby.

The woman regained consciousness, found her baby and returned home, Hayab said.

"To them, it is not the number of the hostages they take that matters because they know even if they take one person they will receive ransom in exchange."

He said they were waiting for the abductors to make their demands.

Kaduna police have confirmed the incident but are yet to provide details.

Abductions for ransom and intercommunal attacks have been on the rise again in the last few weeks after a brief calm period during February and March elections for the presidency and governorship posts.

Nine people, including a local chief, were also kidnapped late on Wednesday in Idon Gida community in nearby Kajuru district of Kaduna State, according to Hayab and a local official.

Bandits burst into the Christian village around 2000 GMT, taking away seven women and two men, they said.

Mass kidnappings and bandit gangs in the northwest are just one of several security challenges facing president-elect Bola Tinubu when he takes the helm of Africa's most populous nation later this month.

Nigeria's military is also battling a grinding jihadist conflict in the northeast that has killed 40,000 since 2009 as well as simmering separatist tensions in the southeast of the country, where gunmen often target police.

AFP