Nigeria’s naira ended the year as the third worst performing currency in Africa.
The naira fared better than only the Ghana’s cedi and Zambia’s kwacha.
The naira rose against the dollar in thin trade at the interbank market on Wednesday, the last day of trading in 2014, but closed at N181.50, a 13 per cent fall in the year, compared with the N160.60 to a dollar it was at the end of December 2013, according to Reuters data.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had devalued the naira at the end of November and this month tightened trading rules to try to curb speculation against the currency, slowing trading to a trickle, after the naira was hard hit by falling world oil prices.
The devaluation of its target band by eight per cent to N160-N176 against the dollar was meant to halt the slide in foreign reserves, but the naira has traded well outside that band – and reserves are still falling.