African currencies week ahead: Shilling, kwacha to hold steady, naira to ease

ABUJA: The Kenyan, Ugandan and Tanzanian shillings and Zambia’s kwacha are expected to be stable against the dollar in the next week to Thursday, while Nigeria’s naira will weaken, traders said.

KENYA — The Kenyan shilling is expected to trade in a tight band in the next week as a healthy supply of dollars from exporters offsets any rising demand.

The currency of East Africa’s richest economy was trading at 107.45/65 per dollar on Thursday, up from 108.10/30 the previous week.

It will be stuck in a range of 107.00-108.00 over the next few days, currency traders said.

UGANDA — The Ugandan shilling is seen trading in a broadly stable position on the back of slow importer appetite for hard currency and customary end of month inflows.

Commercial banks quoted the shilling at 3,540/3,550, compared with last Thursday’s close of 3,560/3,570.

TANZANIA — Tanzania’s shilling is expected to hold steady with dollar inflows from investors and agricultural exports meeting demand from the manufacturing sector.

Commercial banks quoted the shilling at 2,314/2,324 per dollar, the same as last Thursday’s close.

NIGERIA — Nigeria’s naira is seen easing on the black market after the currency weakened to almost a three-and-half year low on the informal market.

The naira dropped 1.2% to 493 per dollar on the black market following recent weakness on the spot market.

The central bank weakened its spot rate 380 naira after moving to unify the currency’s official rates with the traded market rates of 410 naira, traders said, effectively letting the naira weaken by 7.7%.

The unit traded at 405.50 naira per dollar on the spot market, from last Thursday’s close of 411.

ZAMBIA — The Zambian kwacha is likely to remain range-bound in the next week.

On Thursday, commercial banks quoted the currency of Africa’s second largest copper producer at 22.4750 per dollar from 22.4430 at last Thursday’s close.