The Nigerian currency gained against the U.S. dollar at the black market on Tuesday, trading at N665 to a dollar on exchange platform Aboki Forex.

Checks by Peoples Gazette on Tuesday revealed that the naira gained value at the parallel market, rising to N665 per dollar from N710 last week.

According to data from the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, a platform that oversees official foreign-exchange trading in Nigeria, the naira gained 0.03 per cent to close at N428.88 to the dollar on Monday.

The development represents an N45 gain over the N710 it traded on the parallel market last Wednesday.

The currency’s rise comes just days after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) besieged Abuja’s Wuse Zone 4 axis, the city’s bureau de change trading hub, in an attempt to stabilise the country’s tumbling currency.

The raid was prompted after the anti-graft agency received intelligence that some individuals were buying American dollars in large quantities, a move projected to create scarcity of the green and further sink the naira.

The Gazette had last week Wednesday reported that the naira crashed in the parallel market, trading for N710 against the U.S. dollar.

The development sparked panic in the country’s financial sector, prompting the Nigerian Senate to summon Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele to a closed session to brief the legislature on the reasons for the naira’s rapid depreciation.

Mr Emefiele has spent years blaming BDC operators and purported speculators for the downward trend of the national currency.