Nigeria's naira fell to a record low on the black market on Friday, driven by seasonal demand for dollars from people paying for expenses abroad.

The naira was quoted at 895 to the U.S. dollar on abokiFx, a firm that publishes online black market exchange rates for the naira, compared with 875 on Thursday.

The currency of Africa's biggest economy was trading at 785 naira to the dollar on Friday on the official spot market, where it has been swinging widely intraday since the central bank loosened trading restrictions in June.

Under President Bola Tinubu, the central bank is moving away from a much-criticised system of multiple exchange rates used to keep the naira artificially strong, and towards a unified exchange rate.

Olawale Edun, who is likely to be Nigeria's next finance minister, said this week the weaker black market rate was not backed up by economic fundamentals and that a more appropriate naira exchange rate would be around 700 to the dollar.

(Reporting by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo, Editing by Alexander Winning and Angus MacSwan)