Naira Appreciates at Official Market as CBN Sells FX to BDC Operators

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira reacted positively to the sale of $20,000 to each of the eligible Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators on Thursday by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The forex was offered to the traders at N1,590/$1, with an instruction to sell to their customers in the retail end of the market at about N1,605/$1.

This action relieved the pressure on the domestic currency yesterday as it gained 5.5 per cent or N91.32 against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) to exchange at N1,576.10/$1 compared with Wednesday’s closing value of N1,667.42/$1.

In the same vein, the local currency gained N35.87 against the Pound Sterling in the spot market to quote at N2,187.81/£1 versus the previous day’s N2,223.68/£1 and weakened by N7.29 against the Euro to finish at N1,882.82/€1, in contrast to midweek’s value of N1,830.11/€1.

Data showed a surge in the forex turnover on Thursday by 211.4 per cent or $233.58 million to $344.05 million from the i$100.47 million recorded in the previous trading day.

Similarly, in the parallel market, the Naira improved its value against the Dollar during the session by N5 to close at N1,690/$1 compared with the N1,695/$1 it was traded a day earlier.

Cryptocurrencies were largely upwards on Thursday with Dogecoin (DOGE) soaring by 11.1 per cent to sell at $0.1222.

This significant uptick can be attributed to two primary factors: China’s latest economic stimulus pledge and declining DOGE balances across major cryptocurrency exchanges.

Further, Cardano (ADA) gained 6.6 per cent to settle at $0.4142, Solana (SOL) jumped by 4.9 per cent to $157.34, Litecoin (LTC) expanded by 3.5 per cent to finish at $69.47, and Bitcoin (BTC) appreciated by 2.8 per cent to $65,403.66.

Further, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 2.3 per cent to trade at $604.10, Ethereum (ETH) increased by 1.6 per cent to trade at $2,655.63, and Ripple (XRP) expanded by 1.2 per cent to end at $0.5916, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 f.