By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigeria’s local currency the naira on Monday closed at a new record low of N191.10 compared to Friday’s N190.60 despite the intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), a Reuters report said.

According to the report, quoting a dealer, the naira continued to weaken on strong demand for the U.S dollar.

It was said that the currency had initially gained 1.66 percent to 186.80 naira after the central bank and two oil companies sold dollars to lift the naira, before it then slipped into negative territory.

The Nigerian local currency has hit a string of record lows as dollar liquidity on the interbank forex market thins out amidst a collapse in the price of oil, Nigeria’s main export.

The report quoted dealers as saying that oil marketer Total Nigeria Plc offered to sell $80 million to some banks on Monday while Shell Nigeria sold an undisclosed amount of dollars, to buy naira for their local operations.