Panic as Naira Crashes to N621/$1 at P2P, N609/$1 at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The woes of the Nigerian currency continued on Tuesday at the peer-to-peer (P2P) and the black market sides of the foreign exchange (FX) market as it further depreciated against the United States Dollar but maintained stability against the greenback at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window at the close of business.

Data obtained by Business Post from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the domestic currency closed flat against the American currency at N421/$1, but it could not replicate this feat at the two other segments, which have become very critical lately due to the inability of forex users to obtain FX from commercial banks for quick usage.

Though the situation was different at the I&E segment yesterday as traders were able to considerably meet the demands of their customers as forex trades worth $206.65 million were carried out compared with the $152.96 million recorded on Monday, indicating a 35.1 per cent or $53.69 million increase.

At the P2P window, the Naira lost N4 or 0.65 per cent against the US currency to trade at N621/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N617/$1 and at the black market, it depreciated by N4 or 0.66 per cent to settle at N609/$1 in contrast to Monday’s value of N605/$1.

In the interbank segment of the market, the value of the domestic currency against the Pound Sterling remained unchanged at N509.82/£1 and it was a similar situation against the Euro as it closed flat at N439.49/€1 yesterday.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was bearish though the fear of missing out (FOMO) has seen the price of the crisis-hit coin, Terra USTC, return to profitability. The stablecoin has taken the 84th spot among the largest cryptocurrencies in the world, growing by 300 per cent in the past 24 hours to settle at $0.0767.

Solana (SOL) dropped 8.6 per cent yesterday to sell at $35.13, Dogecoin (DOGE) fell by 8.0 per cent to $0.0653, Binance Coin (BNB) dropped 7.2 per cent in value to sell at $218.97, Litecoin (LTC) went down by 6.1 per cent to $52.22, Ethereum (ETH) depleted by 5.7 per cent to $1,129.13, Ripple (XRP) took a 4.6 per cent hit to trade at $0.3325, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 4.3 per cent to $0.4661, Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 3.5 per cent to $20,119.98 and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) lost 0.05 per cent to quote at $0.9986.