Naira Crashes to N1,637.59/$1 at Official FX Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

It was a bad day for the Naira in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Tuesday, September 10 as FX supply crisis weakened its value against the United States Dollar.

Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the domestic currency slid further against the greenback yesterday by 3.61 per cent or N57.13 to sell at the official forex market at N1,637.59/$1, in contrast to the N1,580.46/$1 it traded in the preceding session.

This happened amid a drop in the FX turnover for the trading session by 27.5 per cent or $54.22 million to $143.15 million from the $197.37 million recorded a day earlier.

Recently, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervened in the market with the supply of forex majorly to Bureau De Change (BDC) operators.

The apex bank precisely sold the FX to BDC operators last Friday. They were given $20,000 each at N1,580/$1 to address the retail market demand for eligible invisible transactions such as personal travel allowances, business travel allowances, medical bills, and school fees.

According to a statement issued by Mr W. J. Kanya, acting director of the CBN’s Trade  Exchange Department, each eligible BDC will be allocated $20,000 at the approved rate. In turn, BDCs are authorised to sell to end-users at a margin not exceeding one per cent above the purchase rate from the CBN.

It was observed that the local currency gained against the Pound Sterling in the spot market yesterday by N34.55 to close at N2,110.06/£1 versus the previous day’s N2,095.29/£1, but traded flat against the Euro at N1,804.99/€1.

In the black market, the Naira also remained unchanged against the Dollar during the trading session at N1,650/$1.

As for the cryptocurrency market, there was a mixed outcome amid a shaky rebound from last week’s fear-inducing plunge.

Litecoin (LTC) improved by 1.1 per cent to $61.15, Cardano (ADA) appreciated by 0.9 per cent to $0.342, Solana (SOL) gained 0.6 per cent to sell at $134.11, Ethereum (ETH) rose by 0.5 per cent to $2,352.71, and Bitcoin (BTC) expanded by 0.4 per cent to $57,000.59.

On the flip side, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 0.9 per cent to $0.1070, Binance Coin (BNB) went south by 0.2 per cent to $515.36, and Ripple (XRP) slid by 0.1 per cent to $0.535, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.