Naira Appreciates Further on Dollar at NAFEM

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar by N28.05 or 1.7 per cent in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, October 4.

The exchange rate closed the session at N1,631.21/$1 in the official market compared with the N1,659.26/$1 it was sold in the preceding session.

The turnover for the session, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, slumped by 46.9 per cent or $211.03 million to $239.36 million from the $450.39 million posted on Thursday.

Equally, the domestic currency witnessed gains against the British Pound Sterling and the European nation’s Euro in the spot market yesterday.

Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that the local currency was exchanged for a Pound Sterling at N2.175.44/£1 on Friday versus the preceding day’s N2,199.65/£1, indicating a price appreciation of N24.21 and against the Euro, it improved by 78 Kobo to sell at N1,830.11/€1 versus N1,830.89/€1.

As for the black market, the Nigerian currency appreciated against the US Dollar during the session by N5 to quote at N1,670/$1, in contrast to Thursday’s closing price of N1,675/$1.

In the cryptocurrency market, the bulls were in control after the employment picture in the US heated up in September, with the government reporting the addition of 254,000 jobs last month, flying past estimates for just 140,000. In addition, August’s previously reported 142,000 job gain was revised higher to 159,000.

As a result of the positive data, the unemployment rate slid to 4.1 per cent from 4.2 per cent in August versus forecasts for 4.2 per cent, giving a strong outlook for the markets.

The developments pushed the price of Bitcoin (BTC) higher by 1.2 per cent to $62,119.45 and raised Ethereum (ETH) by 1.5 per cent to $2,420.31, with Solana (SOL) gaining 3.6 per cent to sell at $144.26.

Further, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 2.4 per cent to $563.08, Cardano (ADA) jumped by 1.9 per cent to $0.3551, Ripple (XRP) rose by 1.7 per cent to $0.5824, Litecoin (LTC) expanded by 1.5 per cent to $65.37, Dogecoin (DOGE) increased by 1.1 per cent to $0.109, and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) grew by 0.01 per cent to $1.00, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) remained unchanged at $1.00.