The Nigerian currency, the naira, has been named the worst-performing currency in the first half of 2024, following its nearly 40% depreciation against the U.S. dollar. According to a Bloomberg report, U.S. dollar shortages primarily contributed to the currency’s slide, which recently saw the naira weaken against the greenback for nine consecutive days.

The report states that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) aggressive interest rate policy has seemingly failed to attract foreign capital and reverse the naira’s downward trend. As previously reported by Bitcoin.com News, after the naira’s quickfire depreciation in the first quarter of 2024, Nigerian authorities responded by instituting a series of measures aimed at halting the decline.

These measures included blocking access to cryptocurrency exchanges as well as cracking down on currency speculators using peer-to-peer crypto trading platforms. These steps ultimately resulted in the arrest of Binance executives Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla.

Initially, these measures not only wiped out the significant losses incurred in February but also led to the naira being named the best performer after it nearly breached the NGN1,000 per dollar mark. However, the recovery was short-lived, and by the end of June, the naira traded around NGN1,500 per dollar, making it the worst performer among currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

Samir Gadio, head of Africa strategy at Standard Chartered Bank Plc in London, is quoted in the report stating that what matters now going forward is “whether it [Nigeria] can stabilize on improving foreign-exchange inflows and perhaps see some appreciation.”

Meanwhile, the report data also indicates that the Egyptian pound was the second-worst-performing currency during the same period, while the Ghanaian cedi’s year-to-date depreciation of 21.8% saw it occupy the third spot.

In contrast, the data shows that the Kenyan shilling, which appreciated by 20.7% so far this year, was the best-performing currency in the first half of 2024. The Zambian kwacha’s year-to-date gain of 6.9% saw it ranked the third-best performer during the same period.

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