By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira marginally appreciated against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Monday, June 10 by 37 Kobo or 0.02 per cent to close at N1,483.62/$1 compared with last Friday’s N1,483.99/$1.
Also, the local currency improved its value against the Pound Sterling in the official market by N57.47 to sell at N1,842.45/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,899.92/£1 and against the Euro, it scaled up by N49.94 to quote at N1,567.67/€1 versus N1,617.61/€1.
The improvement in the value of the country’s legal tender in the currency market came after the receipt of a fresh tranche of a $925 million crude oil-backed loan facilitated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and the Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to boost its FX market from a consortium of crude oil off-taker lenders including but not limited to the Oando Group and Sahara Energy Resource Limited.
The $925 million facility is under the syndicated $3.3 billion crude oil-backed prepayment facility and brings the total current funded facility size to $3.175 billion.
“This funding will greatly support the attainment of Nigeria’s short and long-term economic development priorities,” the President of Afreximbank, Mr Benedict Oramah said.
However, the value of forex trades in the spot market yesterday declined by 39.9 per cent or $107.58 million to $161.89 million from the $268.17 million recorded in the previous session, according to data from FMDQ Securities Exchange.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Naira gained N5 against the US Dollar in the parallel market on Monday to quote at N1,480/$1 compared with the preceding trading day’s rate of N1,485/$1.
As for the cryptocurrency market, it witnessed a downswing as investors and traders took profit from recent day gains, leaving Binance Coin (BNB), the native token of Binance, down by 6.6 per cent to $624.16. It had previously hit an all-time high of $710 last week linked to BNB Chain’s improving metrics.
Dogecoin (DOGE) slumped by 2.7 per cent to sell at $0.172, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 2.6 per cent depreciation to settle at $0.488, Ethereum (ETH) fell by 2.5 per cent to $3,590.98, and Solana (SOL) also made a 2.5 per cent depreciation to sell at $155.84.
In addition, Litecoin (LTC) went down by 2.0 per cent to $78.13, Bitcoin (BTC) depreciated by 1.9 per cent to trade at $62,158.18, and Cardano (ADA) lost 1.7 per cent to sell at $0.4343, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 a piece.
Dipo Olowookere