Nigerian Naira Down at Spot Market, Black Market, P2P

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Naira was down against the American Dollar across the different segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Thursday, March 16.

Business Post reports that the value of the Naira was weakened in the Peer-2-Peer (P2P), the Investors and Exporters (I&E), and the parallel market yesterday as the demand for forex gradually rose ahead of the second leg of the 2023 general elections this weekend.

In the peer-to-peer window, the local currency lost N1 against the greenback during the session to settle at N756/$1 versus the N755/$1 it was sold on Wednesday.

Also, in the black market, the domestic currency depreciated against the United States currency by N1 to N748/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s exchange rate of N747/$1.

It was the same outcome at the spot market, where the Nigerian currency lost 91 Kobo or 0.2 per cent against its American counterpart to close at N462.00/$1 compared with midweek’s value of N461.09/$1.

It was observed that the Naira shed weight yesterday despite the FX turnover going down by 31.26 per cent or $44.47 million to $97.78 million from $142.25 million. The shortfall in the supply of forex to the official market ostensibly contributed to the downfall of the local currency yesterday.

In the interbank segment, the Naira lost N5.22 against the Pound Sterling to trade at N556.45/£1 versus N561.67/£1 and against the Euro, it dwindled by N6.66 to quote at N487.99/€1 compared with the previous day’s N494.65/€1.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market rebounded on Thursday after the potential collapse of Credit Suisse was somewhat averted, following an intervention from the Swiss National Bank, which has helped calm markets, including the crypto market.

Bitcoin (BTC) rose by 6.0 per cent to $25,852.41, Ethereum (ETH) moved up by 3.6 per cent to $1,713.25, Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 6.9 per cent to $332.78, Dogecoin (DOGE) improved by 4.9 per cent to $0.0737, and Litecoin (LTC) went up by 4.2 per cent to trade at $81.32.

In addition, Solana (SOL) increased its value by 3.3 per cent to sell at $20.04, Cardano (ADA) expanded by 2.0 per cent to $0.3318, and Ripple (XRP) recorded a 1.7 per cent appreciation to trade at $0.3701, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.