Citigroup Inc. said deals in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, have plummeted because investors are too scared to spend money when it’s expected that the naira will have to be devalued. “I see this as a year of pause,” Miguel Melo Azevedo, Citigroup’s head of investment banking for Africa, who helped sell dollar debt for countries including Nigeria and Morocco, said in an interview in Cape Town. “You will look very stupid if you buy something in Nigeria and tomorrow it gets devalued. There’s an embarrassment factor.” Nigeria’s government is shielding the naira after the 42 percent decline in the price of Brent crude in the past year has decimated state revenues. The currency has been pegged at 197-199 per dollar since March last year, while in the unofficial parallel market, the naira is more than 50 percent weaker and traded at about 300 per dollar on Wednesday. The […]