Nigerian currency, the Naira on Thursday fell further against the dollar trading at N361 per dollar on the official market, supported by the Central Bank of Nigeria and N383.25 to the dollar on the spot market.
Traders, according to Reuters, said most of them were switching to remote dealing due to a spread of the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has named Ghana as one of the 20 African countries seeking emergency funding to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic as more cases are reported on the continent.
IMF said it expects more countries to make similar request in the coming weeks.
The fund said the spread of the coronavirus into sub-Saharan Africa will hit the region’s economic growth hard, with direct disruptions to people’s livelihoods, tighter financial conditions, reduced trade and investment and a steep drop in commodity prices.
Top officials of IMF Africa Department in blog posting on the IMF’s website, top officials in the Fund’s Africa Department said they have received requests for emergency financing from over 20 nations in the region and expect at least 10 more soon.
On Tuesday, the Fund announced that Ghana had requested a rapid-disbursing emergency loan to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Monday said some 80 countries had requested loans from emergency facilities, under which some $50 billion is available, with at least 20 more requests expected.
“Across the region, growth will be hit hard. Precisely how hard is still difficult to say. But it is clear that our growth forecast in April’s regional outlook will be significantly lower,” Abebe Aemro Selassie, director of the IMF Africa Department, and Karen Ongley, mission chief for Sierra Leone, wrote in the blog posting.
(Reuters)
