Renewed FX Demand Pressure Weakens Naira at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

High demand for Dollars at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Wednesday weakened the value of the Nigerian Naira by 0.11 per cent or 50 Kobo.

This happened as President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled the redesigned Naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the State House in Abuja at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting yesterday.

At the unveiling of the new N200, N500, and N1,000 notes, Mr Buhari said the redesigned naira denominations would help the CBN implement better monetary policy objectives and enrich the collective memory of the country’s heritage.

But the Naira value depreciated against the United States Dollar in the official market during the session to sell at N446.00/$1 compared with the NN445.50/$1 it traded a day earlier.

According to data from FMDQ Securities Exchange, the value of FX trades rose by 95.2 per cent or $71.17 million to $145.89 million from the preceding session’s $74.72 million.

Also, in the parallel market, the local currency depreciated against the greenback in the midweek session by N5 to close at N780/$1, in contrast to Tuesday’s exchange rate of N775/$1.

However, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window, the value of the Nigerian currency paired with its US counterpart closed flat on Wednesday at N794/$1.

In the interbank window, the Naira lost N3.18 against the Pound Sterling to trade at N526.97/£1 versus N523.79/£1, and against the Euro, it lost N1.07 to settle at N455.56/€1 compared with the previous day’s N454.49/€1.

Meanwhile, a look at the cryptocurrency market showed that Solana (SOL) appreciated by 11.1 per cent to sell at $14.31, Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 9.8 per cent jump to trade at $299.74, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 3.4 per cent to $1,200.48, and Ripple (XRP) rose by 1.5 per cent to $0.3828.

Dogecoin (DOGE) continued a positive trajectory as it appreciated by 1.3 per cent to $0.0824, Bitcoin (BTC) went higher by 1.1 per cent to $16,671.68, Cardano (ADA) recorded a 0.3 per cent increase to sell at $0.3181, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) made a 0.03 per cent rise to trade at $0.9993.

However, Litecoin (LTC) slumped by 4.7 per cent to trade at $76.80, while Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat at $1.00.