In an election year, the Central Bank of Nigeria is doing all it can to defend the nation’s currency and shore up its external reserves. It is becoming a herculean task. The naira is depreciating at the bureaux de change, parallel market and the official market. It now exchanges for N168 per dollar at the bureaux de change, N155.3 per dollar at the CBN, and N170 at the black market. But the nation’s foreign reserves have risen by 5%. Already, the CBN has cut currency traffickers to size. On the expiration of its deadline for bureaux de change operators to increase their capital base by July 31, the number of these operators reduced to 2, 442 from almost 5, 000. This would mean less pressure on the foreign exchange demand.
A technocrat is at work at the apex bank. New CBN governor G. I. Emefiele has shown that he has little interest in politics.
Below are the official exchange rates of the Naira in relation to other currencies as of August 15, 2014:
| Currency | Buying (NGN) | Central(NGN) | Selling(NGN) |
| US DOLLAR | 154.73 | 155.23 | 155.73 |
| POUNDS STERLING | 258.2753 | 259.1099 | 259.9445 |
| EURO | 207.168 | 207.8374 | 208.5069 |
| SWISS FRANC | 170.9913 | 171.5438 | 172.0964 |
| YEN | 1.5078 | 1.5127 | 1.5175 |
| CFA | 0.2962 | 0.3062 | 0.3162 |
| WAUA | 235.7624 | 236.5242 | 237.2861 |
| YUAN/RENMINBI | 25.1687 | 25.2505 | 25.3322 |
| RIYAL | 41.2547 | 41.388 | 41.5214 |
| DANISH KRONA | 27.7862 | 27.8759 | 27.9657 |
| SDR | 236.5976 | 237.3622 | 238.1267 |
