Jan 8, 2015/Bloomberg

The naira advanced the most since November 2003 as oil companies and the Central Bank of Nigeria increased sales of foreign exchange.

The currency of Africa’s biggest crude producer rose 3.8 percent to 179.55 per dollar as of 4:43 p.m. in Lagos. The naira appreciated 2.2 percent this year, the most among 24 African currencies tracked by Bloomberg after the Somali shilling. The Abuja-based regulator sold $451 million at its auction yesterday, the most since Nov. 26. Oil companies offered about $200 million between Jan. 5 and 7, according to Adebayo Omogoroye at Guaranty Trust Bank Plc.

“There’s a lot more supply and demand is very thin,” Omogoroye, head of trading at the Lagos-based lender, said by phone. “The central bank was very strong in the auction.”

Buyers have been put off after a central bank announcement in December forcing them to use foreign exchange within 48 hours or sell it back to the institution. Demand was also hit by a ruling that banks clear foreign-exchange positions daily, having previously been allowed net-open positions of 1 percent of shareholder funds.

The central bank is reviewing this, Governor Godwin Emefiele said in an interview on Jan. 6. His comments have helped to boost liquidity, according to Robert Hagenaars, a fixed-income trader at Zenith Bank U.K. Ltd.

“Interbank market activity is picking up, with investor confidence incrementally rising due to strong indications that the central bank will reconsider” the zero net-open position limit, Hagenaars said in a note.

The naira fell 13 percent last year as falling oil prices battered Nigeria, which relies on crude for almost all export earnings and 70 percent of government revenue. Brent crude futures fell 0.1 percent to $51.11 today.