Naira Appreciates to N1,608/$1 at NAFEM, N1,605/$1 at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira appreciated against the United States Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday by 0.4 per cent or N6.96 to close at N1,608.98/$1 versus Wednesday’s closing rate of N1,615.94/$1.

However, it performed badly against the British Pound Sterling during the session by N30.27 to trade at N2,066.33/£1 compared with the midweek’s value of N2,036.06/£1, and against the Euro, the Nigerian currency depreciated by N26.08 to settle at N1,766.62/€1 versus the N1,740.54/€1 it traded a day earlier.

During the trading day, the value of foreign exchange (FX) transactions slightly went down by 2.1 per cent or $5.1 million to $243.65 million from $248.75 million and the nation continues to enjoy better forex inflows due to the series of policies from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stabilise the market.

In the parallel market, the Naira enjoyed the spillover as its value was strengthened against the Dollar yesterday by N2 to quote at N1,605/$1, in contrast to the N1,607/$1 it was transacted on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market recorded a large retreat as traders took profit following recent runs.

The release of economic data in the US this week may have accelerated the declines as hotter-than-expected Consumer Price Index (CPI) data earlier this week is seen to have worsened America’s economic woes and could dash hopes that lower interest rates were coming soon.

The biggest loser was Dogecoin (DOGE), which recorded a value depreciation of 11.2 per cent to sell at $0.1641, and Litecoin (LTC) dropped by 8.7 per cent to sell at $87.66, with Bitcoin (BTC) shedding 7.7 per cent to trade at $67,515.67.

Further, Binance Coin (BNB) went down by 7.4 per cent to $571.62, Ethereum (ETH) crashed by 7,3 per cent to $3,677.95, Ripple (XRP) slid by 7.2 per cent to $0.6296, and Cardano (ADA) collapsed by 6.3 per cent to $0.7082, while Solana (SOL) solidified its value by 4.6 per cent to $173.96, with the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closing flat at $1.00 flat.