Naira Further Strengthens to N889/$1 at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira further appreciated by 1.3 per cent or N11.55 against the United States currency in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, December 15, selling at N889.86/$1 compared with the previous day’s rate of N901.41/$1.

The domestic currency was further strengthened by the low demand for foreign exchange (FX) in the official market during the session amid a decline in the supply of forex into the market.

The turnover for the trading session depreciated by 71.70 per cent or $105.54 million to $41.66 million from the $147.20 million quoted on Thursday.

Also, the local currency witnessed an ease in pressure in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) arm of the market, which helped it to gained N3 on the greenback to close at N1,207/$1 versus the N1,210/$1 it was transacted in the preceding trading session.

Similarly, the Nigerian currency improved its value against its American counterpart in the parallel market yesterday by N15 to quote at N1,235/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s value of N1,250/$1.

It was not a different story for the Naira in the spot market against the Pound Sterling as it chalked up N11.71 on Friday to close at N1,096.23/£1 compared with the N1,107.94/£1 it traded a day earlier, and against the Euro, it gained N11.59 to settle at N941.47/€1 versus the previous day’s exchange rate of N953.06/€1.

The cryptocurrency market experienced price corrections from recent gains, with Cardano (ADA), after rising by more than 50 per cent in the last few days, retreated by 4.1 per cent yesterday to $0.613.

Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 3.3 per cent to sell at $0.0939, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 2.3 per cent loss to trade at $0.6207, Ethereum (ETH) slid by 1.5 per cent to $2,247.16, and Binance Coin (BNB) went down by 1.4 per cent to $247.43.

In addition, Bitcoin (BTC) declined by 1.3 per cent to sell at $42,239.97, Solana (SOL) made a 1.2 per cent decline to close at $74.07, and Litecoin (LTC) slumped by 0.7 per cent to trade at $71.94, while the US Dollar Tether (USDt) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded at flat $1.00 each.