Naira Fall Further to N1,653/$1 at NAFEM, N1,725/$1 at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira spent another day in the negative region on Tuesday after it depreciated further against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) by 3.1 per cent or N49.86 to close at N1,653.02/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N1,603.16/$1.

However, the domestic currency improved its value against the British Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N16.54 to wrap the session at N2,137.36/£1 versus the previous day’s N2,153.90/£1 and against the Euro, the Nigerian currency gained N10.80 to finish at N1,780.26/€1, in contrast to the N1,791.06/€1 it was traded on Monday.

The value of forex transactions significantly declined during the session by 50.9 per cent or N183.07 million to $176.15 million from the $359.22 million achieved a day earlier.

It appears the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has failed to inject FX into the market for yet another week, negating a promise to always prop the market.

In the parallel market, the value of the local currency weakened further on Wednesday against the US Dollar by N5 to quote at N1,725/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,720/$1.

A look at the cryptocurrency market indicated that things turned awry as investors and traders took profit after recent political triggers eased and created an avenue for many to cash out.

Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 5.2 per cent to sell at $0.1385, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 2.6 per cent slump to trade at $0.5302 and Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 2.3 per cent to $69.31.

In addition, Solana (SOL) fell by 2.1 per cent to quote at $165.19, Binance Coin (BNB) slid by 1.8 per cent to settle at $588.18, Ethereum (ETH) lost 1.3 per cent to finish at $2,616.06, Bitcoin (BTC) decreased by 0.9 per cent during the trading day to end at $67,085.92, and Cardano (ADA) retreated by 0.3 per cent to close the session at $0.3649, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.