Naira is Africa’s worst performing currency of 2016 - Bloomberg

The Nigerian Naira took a dive on Thursday at both parallel and official markets, becoming the worst performing currency in Africa in 2016.

Bloomberg data revealed that the Naira which began trading at 283 to the dollar at the interbank market on Thursday, depreciated to 284/$1 to become the third worst performing currency in the world for 2016.

In 2016, the Naira has lost 29.61 percent of its value on the official market, following the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to allow for a floating foreign exchange regime.

Nigerian Naira, according to the data came ahead of only two currencies in the world Venezulan bolivar and Suriname dollar.

At the Nigerian parallel market, the Naira fell to its lowest level since the start of the new foreign exchange regime, trading at 363/$1 and 485 to the pound.

The top three performing currencies of 2016 were all universal currencies: Silver, Gold and Platinum, which have gained 45.93 percent, 25.11 percent and 22.79 percent respectively.

These currencies were followed by the Brazilian real, the Russian rubble and the Japanese Yen.