Local Currency Loses 0.16% Against Dollar at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Naira witnessed a depreciation on the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Monday, January 27 as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launches the an FX Code to further ensure safety and tighten regulation in the market.

According to the apex bank, the FX Code is structured around six leading principles; ethics, governance, execution, information sharing, risk management and compliance, and confirmation and settlement processes.

CBN added: “In addition, some principles were incorporated in the Nigerian FX Code to promote efficiency in the Nigeria FX market.

“The FX Code requires Market Participants to ensure that illegal financial transfers are avoided, and appropriate money laundering policies put in place to protect the integrity of the domestic markets and the global financial framework as a whole.”

At the market yesterday, the local currency weakened against the greenback by 0.16 per cent or N2.43 to sell for N1,533.63/$1, in contrast to last Friday’s N1,531.20/$1.

Similarly, the domestic currency depreciated against the Pound Sterling at the official market during the session by N13.41 to close at N1,916.65/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,903.24/£1 and against the Euro, it lost N7.02 to trade at N1,612.19/€1 versus the previous session’s N1,605.17/€1.

In the black market, the Naira, however, appreciated against the US Dollar on Monday by N10 to quote at N1,650/$1 compared with the preceding trading day’s value of N1,660/$1.

As for the cryptocurrency market, there were positive outcomes as the wider financial market was battered after Chinese AI startup DeepSeek threw into question ideas that the miners had value as data center plays.

Earlier selloff provided an attractive entry opportunity for altcoin investors who missed out on the crypto rally following Donald Trump’s election victory.

Ripple (XRP) jumped by 8.7 per cent to $3.11, Cardano (ADA) added 6.7 per cent to trade at $0.9539, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated 6.2 per cent to $0.335, and Solana (SOL) gained 5.8 per cent to settle at $240.54.

In addition, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 4.8 per cent to $679.49, Litecoin (LTC) expanded by 4.4 per cent to $116.05, Bitcoin (BTC) rose by 3.9 per cent to $102,821.43, and Ethereum (ETH) improved by 3.5 per cent to $3,200.71, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.