By Elizabeth Adegbesan

The volume of dollars traded (turnover) in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the  foreign exchange market rose by four per cent, year on year (y/y),  to $62.37 billion last year from $59.75 billion in 2018.

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Meanwhile, the naira  depreciated slightly by 51 kobo in the I&E window in 2019,   as the indicative exchange rate for the window rose to N364.51 per dollar on 31st of December 2019  from N364 per dollar on December 31st 2018.

Vanguard analysis of monthly turnover in the I&E window showed that   turnover dropped by 22 percent in January 2019 to $3.84 billion from $4.95 billion in December 2018.

In February 2019, turnover rose by 138 percent to $9.13 billion (highest turnover recorded in the year) from where it declined by 22 percent to $7.5 billion   in March   and by  39 percent to $4.6 billion in April.

The turnover continued its downward trend in May as it fell   by 11 percent to $4.1 billion and by  another 29 percent to $2.9 billion in June.

However, turnover ticked up in June by 30 percent to $4.12 billion and by 70 percent to $7 billion in August, before falling by 37 percent to $4.4 billion in September and down again by five percent to $4.2 billion in October.

In November, turnover in the I&E rose by 26 percent to $5.3 billion and remained stable at $5.3 billion   in   December.

Financial Vanguard analysis of weekly turnover in the window in December showed that $1.3 billion was traded in the first week of the month. Turnover rose by 17 percent to $1.52 billion in the second week and down by 25 percent to $1.14 billion in the third week.

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The turnover fell in the fourth week  by 25 percent to $857.83  million and   down by another 85 percent to $128.87 million in the first two days of the fifth week of December.

Vanguard