Dollar scarcity at the parallel market in Lagos on Tuesday forced the naira down to a dollar at N480.

The Nigeria News Agency (NAN) reports that the pound sterling and the euro were exchanged at N610 and N550, respectively.

Trading at the investors' window saw the naira closing to a dollar at N385.98 as investors traded $20.27 million in total.

However, at N381 the naira was sold to a dollar at the official Nigeria Central Bank (CBN) window.

NAN claimed that the central bank had previously relied on the foreign reserve of the nation and the remittances from the Diaspora in its foreign currency market interventions.

Yet latest CBN data showed the nation's foreign reserve fell by $544.94 million from $36.17 billion on July 1 to $35.62 billion on August 3.

The country is heavily dependent on dollars in petrol to shore up its foreign reserve.