Naira Crashes to N1,512/$1 at NAFEM, N1,560/$1 at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira witnessed the third straight depreciation this week on Thursday after its value weakened by 0.73 per cent or N10.94 on the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) to trade at N1,512.55/$1 compared with Wednesday’s closing price of N1,501.61/$1.

In the same vein, the Nigerian currency tumbled against against the Pound Sterling yesterday by N14.39 to sell for N1,912.54/£1 versus the previous day’s rate of N1,898.15/£1 and lost N97.37 against the Euro to finish at N1,608.55/€1, in contrast to midweek’s rate of N1,553.41/€1.

Similarly, the domestic currency had a bad outing against the greenback in the parallel market during the session, losing N35 to settle at N1,560/$1 versus the preceding day’s rate of N1,525/$1.

The pressure on the local currency comes amid worries about the declining foreign reserves, which has fallen in the last two months.

In December, it crossed the $40 billion, but it has since dropped to $38 billion as of the end of February.

As for the digital cryptocurrency market, it was not different as interest rates fears replaced tariff fears following the US government’s latest walk back on its latest tariff threat.

President Donald Trump said he would exempt Mexico from his new 25 per cent tariff for any goods or services covered under a previous trade agreement.

Cardano (ADA) fell by 7.0 per cent to trade at $0.8750, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 6.5 per cent to sell at $0.2002, Litecoin (LTC) recorded a 6.1 per cent slide to settle at $102.38, and Ethereum (ETH) slumped by 5.1 per cent to quote at $2,184.46.

In addition, Bitcoin (BTC) crashed by 4.1 per cent to close at $88,304.59, Solana (SOL) declined by 3.8 per cent to end at $143.86, Ripple (XRP) went down by 0.5 per cent to $2.49, and Binance Coin (BNB) plunged by 0.4 per cent to trade at $602.60, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.