The naira and its
$500 million Eurobond could come under pressure in the coming days as
the postponement of national elections unnerves investors, traders and
analysts said on Monday.
Africa’s most
populous nation postponed parliamentary and presidential elections by a
week on Sunday, after failing to get logistics prepared in time, a
major embarrassment for a nation hoping to break with a history of
chaotic polls.
The naira traded as low as 155.00 to the dollar on Monday morning, weaker than Friday’s close of 154.10.
“It will definitely
have an impact on the perception of foreign investors … This is bad
for the external image of Nigeria. On the currency, you would expect a
bit of a sell-off,” said Coura Fall, a frontier African analyst at Citi
in Johannesburg.
