Nigeria fixes naira at 198/dollar in de facto devaluation

By Chijioke Ohuocha LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's central bank scrapped its bi-weekly currency auctions on Wednesday and a market body said it would sell dollars only at 198 naira, a move that amounts to a de facto devaluation of the currency of Africa's biggest economy. With elections due in less than six weeks, the changes let the central bank rein in its defence of the naira, on which it was spending more than $100 million a day, while avoiding the politically unpalatable word "d