Naira Weakens to N768/$1 at P2P, N744/$1 at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira opened the new week bearish in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange market on Monday, December 19, after it lost N12 against the United States currency to trade at N768/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N756/$1.

The story was similar in the black market segment yesterday as it depreciated against the US Dollar by N2 to settle at N744/$1, in contrast to last Friday’s value of N742/$1, amid a resurgence of mild FX scarcity in the system.

However, in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, the Nigerian currency was stable against its American counterpart on Monday at N451.50/$1, amid a significant fall in the forex turnover for the trading session.

According to data from FMDQ Securities Exchange, the value of FX transactions recorded at the spot market stood at $69.18 million versus the $355.12 million achieved in the previous session, indicating a plunge of 80.5 per cent or $285.94 million.

In the interbank segment, the Naira appreciated against the British Pound Sterling by N5 to close at N544.46/£1 compared with the previous session’s rate of N549.46/£1, and against the Euro, the local currency depreciated by 99 Kobo to sell for N474.89/€1 versus last Friday’s N473.90/€1.

In the digital currency space, the 10 tokens tracked by Business Post were in the green even as the market continued to face uncertainty as countries raised interest rates to cushion the effect of inflation.

Litecoin (LTC) rose by 3.4 per cent to trade at $65.05, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 2.2 per cent to $1,207.31, Ripple (XRP) added 0.8 per cent to trade at $0.3443, Solana (SOL) appreciated by 0.5 per cent to sell at $12.32, Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 0.4 per cent to quote at $248.42, and Bitcoin (BTC) improved by 0.3 per cent to $16,773.69.

But Dogecoin (DOGE) suffered a 3.8 per cent slump during the session to close at $0.0746, while Cardano (ADA) took a 2.9 per cent hit to trade at $0.257, with the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the Binance USD (BUSD) closing flat at $1.00 each.