Naira Firms to N1,603/$1 at Official Market, N1,602/$1 at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may have finally achieved its goal of converging the exchange rates of the Naira against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) and the black market based on the latest data obtained by Business Post.

On Tuesday, March 12, the exchange rate in the two segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market was narrowed to N1, a scenario that has not been seen for a while.

In the official market, the Naira appreciated against the greenback yesterday by 0.9 per cent or N15.67 to close at N1,603.38/$1 versus the N1,617.96/$1 it quoted in the preceding session.

Also, the Naira gained N23.92 against the Pound Sterling in the spot market on Tuesday to close at N2,067.10/£1 compared with Monday’s closing price of N2,091.02/£1 and against the Euro, it improved by N17.51 to sell at N1,761.96/€1, in contrast to the previous day’s N1,779.47/€1.

An improved forex supply contributed to this as data from FMDQ Securities Exchange showed a day-on-day increase of $26.05 million or 27.1 per cent to $122.18 million from $96.13 million.

A look at the parallel market yesterday indicated that the Nigerian currency gained N13 against the American currency to trade at N1,602/$1 compared with the previous day’s rate of N1,615/$1.

Last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), through its spokesperson, Mrs Hakama Sidi Ali, said foreign investors bought at least $1 billion of Nigerian assets last month, bringing total receipts of portfolio inflows to $2.3 billion compared with $3.9 billion for the whole of 2023.

She also noted that higher forex inflows have continued in March, driven by increased investor interest in short-term sovereign debt after the CBN hiked its key interest rate by 400 basis points to 22.75 per cent, the highest in around 17 years to tame soaring inflation.

In the cryptocurrency market, momentum dropped but some gains remained across benchmarked coins, with Bitcoin (BTC) trading above the all-time high mark of $72,000 mark after it rose by 0.5 per cent to $72,202.90.

Ripple (XRP) recorded a 0.4  per cent jump to trade at $0.6966, Ethereum (ETH) went up by 0.06 per cent to $4,042.60, and Binance Coin (BNB) added 0.01 per cent to sell for $539.49.

However, Solana (SOL) declined by 2.4 per cent to $145.59, Litecoin (LTC) slipped by 1.5 per cent to $97.65, Cardano (ADA) slid by 1.3 per cent to $0.7517, and Dogecoin (DOGE) lost 0.7 per cent to quote at $0.1729, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded at $1.00 each.