Naira Depreciates Across FX Market Segments

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated against the US Dollar in the official market (Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market), the parallel market, and the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday, November 8 as the inflow of forex gradually shrinks after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) cleared the country’s backlogs of matured FX futures contracts.

The domestic currency lost N4.80 or 0.6 per cent against the Dollar in the spot market yesterday to close at N874.71/$1 compared with the previous day’s rate of N869.91/$1, amid an improvement in the supply of forex into the market.

The value of forex transactions increased by 60.1 per cent or $42.60 million during the trading session to $113.52 million from the $70.92 million achieved in the preceding session.

Equally, in the P2P window, the local currency depreciated against the greenback in the midweek session by N35 to quote at N1,049/$1 versus Tuesday’s exchange rate of N1,014/$1.

In the same vein, the Nigerian currency slumped against the US currency on Wednesday by N70, like the previous day, to trade at N1.100/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s N1,030/$1.

The Naira also witnessed a further southward movement against the Pound Sterling in the official market as it declined by N66.53 to close at N1,054.57/£1 compared with Tuesday’s value of N988.04/£1 and depleted against the Euro by N59.84 to settle at N917.67/€1 versus the preceding day’s N857.83/€1.

Meanwhile, the digital currency market was bullish yesterday, as Bitcoin (BTC) jumped by 3.7 per cent to sell at $36,587.50, and Ethereum (ETH) improved its value by 2.1 per cent to close at $1,918.87.

Further, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 3.9 per cent to $0.074, Cardano (ADA) rose by 3.5 per cent to $0.3659, Solana (SOL) expanded by 3.1 per cent to $44.47, Ripple (XRP) increased by 2.5 per cent to $0.6964, Litecoin (LTC) went up by 2.0 per cent to $74.20, and Binance Coin (BNB) gained 1.6 per cent to sell for $249.18, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.