Naira Appreciates by 0.2% at NAFEX as CBN Promises Stability

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira further strengthened against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Wednesday, May 22, spurred by fresh promise of relief at the just concluded Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

At the previous session on Tuesday, the Naira closed at N1,465.68/$1, but yesterday, it appreciated against the greenback by N3.09 or 0.2 per cent to quote at N1,462.59/$1.

Similarly, the local currency improved against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N43.31 to trade at N1,839.15/£1 versus the preceding day’s N1,882.47/£1 and against the Euro, it gained N39.39 to settle at N1,570.77/€1, in contrast to the previous session’s N1,610.16/€1.

The foreign exchange (FX) turnover for the trading session went down by 53.9 per cent or $144.72 million to $123.45 million from $268.17 million.

However, in the parallel market, the Nigerian Naira lost N20 against the American Dollar at midweek to close at N1,500/$1 compared with Tuesday’s closing rate of N1,480/$1.

The Governor of the CBN, Mr Yemi Cardoso, on Tuesday at the 295th MPC meeting, attributed the instability in the forex market to “seasonal demands”

“Members further observe the recent volatility in the foreign exchange market attributing this to seasonal demand, a reflection of the interplay between demand and supply in a freely, functioning market system,” Mr Cardoso said.

He noted that “there is light at the end of the tunnel”, adding that “the tools that the CBN is using is working” and “we are beginning to get some reliefs”.

Meanwhile, in the cryptocurrency market, while the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing to validate Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the token outperformed others yesterday after rising by 0.2 per cent to sell at $3,769.20.

But Ripple (XRP) slumped by 1.1 per cent to $0.5277, Dogecoin (DOGE) declined by 0.9 per cent to $0.1667, Bitcoin (BTC) shrank by 0.9 per cent to $69,399.94, Binance Coin (BNB) lost 0.8 per cent to sell for $615.54, Litecoin (LTC) also depreciated by 0.8 per cent to $86.16, Cardano (ADA) dipped by 0.5 per cent to trade at $0.4852, and Solana (SOL) went down by 0.3 per cent to $177.31, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.