MON FEB 16 2026-theGBJournal| The naira recorded a notable gain against the U.S. dollar, closing 1.2% to N1,343.90/US$1 today.
The close reflects sustained investor confidence in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market, while the appreciation comes amid improved liquidity and sustained policy measures by the Central Bank of Nigeria aimed at stabilizing the local currency and narrowing volatility in the FX window.
The naira performance today comes after it appreciated against the U.S. dollar across both the official and parallel market segments last week, supported by improved liquidity conditions and sustained CBN interventions.
At the official window, the currency strengthened by 0.80% w/w to close at N1,355.42/US$1, while the parallel market recorded a firmer gain of 4.29% to N1,400.00/US$.
The appreciation was largely underpinned by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s continued supply-side support, including the approval of weekly foreign exchange sales of up to US$150,000 to Bureau de Change (BDC) operators, which helped ease retail demand pressures.
At the fixed income market, yields were mixed on Monday after January’s consumer inflation report came at 15.10% y/y in January.
The NTB secondary market traded on a bullish note, as the average yield contracted by 2bps to 17.5%.
Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-2bps), mid (-2bps) and long (-2bps) segments, driven by the demand for the 31DTM (-3bps), 157DTM (-3bps) and 353DTM(-25bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 6bps to 21.1% at the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the FGN bond secondary market traded on a bearish note, as the average yield expanded by 3bps to 16.0%.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+5bps) and mid (+9bps) segments, due to profit-taking activities on the FEB-2031 (+10bps) and APR-2032 (+24bps) bonds, respectively, but closed flat at the long end.
Meanwhile, the overnight lending rate remained unchanged at 22.8% in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
X-@theGBJournal|Facebook-the Government and Business Journal|email:gbj@govbusinessjournal.com|govandbusinessj@gmail.com
