Nigeria’s naira weakened after lawmakers probed payments of subsidies to importers of refined oil products and the government ordered an audit of the petroleum industry. The currency of Africa’s biggest oil producer depreciated by 0.2 percent to 161.775 per dollar on the interbank market as of 11:45 a.m. in Lagos, the commercial capital, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Nigeria plans to conduct an independent audit of payments in the oil and gas industry from 2009 to 2011, Information Minister Labaran Maku said yesterday in Abuja, the capital. President Goodluck Jonathan said this week he would tackle corruption in the industry and prosecute offenders as a week- long strike against a government decision to scrap subsidies on gasoline came to an end. “The probe will definitely help the naira attain a fair value as the abuses in oil importation and the foreign exchange market are curtailed,� Wale Abe, chief executive officer of the Financial Market Dealers Association, said today by phone from Lagos. “As most importation in the country is oil related, the probe is necessary for managing the supply and demand of foreign exchange, so I expect less distortion in the naira exchange rate.� The West African nation’s labor unions suspended strikes and protests Jan. 16 after the government limited gasoline-price increases to 97 naira a liter (0.3 gallon). The strike, which sparked street protests, and shut banks, businesses and ports, began Jan. 9 after the government scrapped subsidies, which it said cost 1.2 trillion naira last year, and vowed to spend the savings on power plants and roads. Gasoline prices had more than doubled from 65 naira a liter due to low investment in refineries that forced the nation to import about 70 percent of the fuel. Interest Rates Central bank Governor Lamido Sanusi said Jan. 16 that it may be “counter productive� to raise interest rates in response to a jump in fuel prices that will probably push up inflation. Nigeria’s annualized consumer inflation rate fell for the first time in four months to 10.3 percent in December from 10.5 percent a month earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. The central bank left the benchmark lending rate unchanged at a record 12 percent when it last met on Nov. 21. It increased the rate 2.75 percentage points in October after inflation climbed above the bank’s 10 percent target. Ghana’s cedi depreciated to at least the lowest in almost 18 years against the dollar as oil-driven economic growth increased demand for the U.S. dollar. The cedi depreciated 0.4 percent to 1.7520 per dollar as of 11:45 am in Accra, the capital, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporter on this story: Emele Onu in Lagos at eonu1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dulue Mbachu at dmbachu@bloomberg.net

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