By Adedapo Adesanya
Additional pressures piled against the Naira by the United States Dollar further weakened its value at the various segments of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Tuesday.
This was made worse by the clampdown on traders at the authorised parallel market yesterday by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
At the market window, the Nigerian currency lost N6 against the greenback during the session to trade at N816/$1 compared with the previous day’s N810/$1.
Also, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window, the value of the Naira to the US Dollar was N838/$1 compared with Monday’s exchange rate of N818/$1, indicating a decline of N20.
Similarly, the local currency depreciated against its American counterpart on Tuesday at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment by N3 or 0.68 per cent to close at N446.00/$1, in contrast to the preceding session’s N443.00/$1, according to data from FMDQ Securities Exchange.
The value of FX transactions at the spot market, according to data obtained by Business Post, increased by $11.53 million or 28.8 per cent to $51.58 million from the $40.05 million published on Monday.
The forex crisis has heightened after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it would replace higher Naira notes to fight counterfeiting, inflation, and insecurity in the country.
To intensify the fight, operatives of the EFCC raided the offices of black market currency dealers in Abuja on Tuesday.
In the interbank segment, the Naira closed flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro yesterday at N506.63/£1 and N436.21/€1, respectively.
The cryptocurrency market recorded a mixed movement on Tuesday, with Dogecoin (DOGE) continuing its positive trajectory by growing by 1.8 per cent to $0.1436.
Litecoin (LTC) climbed 0.5 per cent to trade at $55.21, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 0.4 per cent gain to sell at $0.4613, Bitcoin (BTC) went higher by 0.2 per cent to $20,524.06, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 0.1 per cent to $1,590.24, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) rose by 0.01 per cent to $0.9999.
On the flip side, Cardano (ADA) recorded a 1.9 per cent decrease to sell at $0.3988, Solana (SOL) depreciated by 1.1 per cent to $32.31, and Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 0.6 per cent slip to trade at $326.02.
However, Binance USD (BUSD) retained parity at $1.00.
Dipo Olowookere