The Naira fell significantly against the dollar Thursday at the parallel market, two days after the Central Bank of Nigeria made its biggest interest rate hike yet in a bid to check inflation and defend the currency.

Bureaux De Change operators in Lagos quoted the naira at N737 to the dollar at the street market.

They attributed the continuous free fall of the naira against the greenback to increased demand for dollars amid lagging supply in the market.

The development is coming days after political parties kicked off the 2023 electioneering.

The local unit depreciated from N725 it exchanged hands with the greenback on Wednesday to trade at N735.00 and above at the unauthoriZed market.

Naira fell slightly at the official market on Wednesday, depreciating 0.01 per cent from N436.33 it traded on Tuesday.

On Monday, it closed at N436.00 per $1. The latest rate leaves the margin between the official and unofficial market figures at N298.63, translating to a gap of 68.4 per cent on Thursday.

It came less than 48 hours after political parties officially kicked off the 2023 general election campaigns in the country.

On Tuesday, the CBN monetary policy committee meeting raised the monetary policy rate, which measures interest rate, to a record high of 15.5 percent.