Naira Gains N5 Against US Dollar at NAFEM, Closes at N1,338/$1

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Naira further improved its value against the United States Dollar by N5.00 or 0.37 per cent to N1,338.59/$1 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Wednesday, August 26, from the preceding session’s N1,343.59/$1.

In the same vein, the domestic currency appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the trading day by N7.62 to close at N1,820.34/£1 versus Wednesday’s rate of N1,827.96/£1, and against the Euro, it gained N5.97 to trade at N1,560.12/€1 versus the previous day’s N1,566.09/€1.

Similarly, the Naira chalked up N5 against the greenback yesterday at the GTBank FX desk to settle at N1,351/$1, in contrast to last session’s value of N1,356/$1, and at the parallel market, it improved by N5 to quote at N1,385/$1 compared with the N1,390/$1 it was traded at midweek.

Total FX turnover stood at $191.69 million on Thursday, 18.8 per cent lower than the $235.99 million recorded a day earlier, according to data released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with the number of deals 176 deals from 213 deals.

Nigeria’s gross external reserves have surpassed $53 billion, supported by sustained accretion from multiple sources, including hydrocarbon sales and remittances.

Updated data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that the country’s gross external reserves rose by $280 million to $53.112 billion on Tuesday, compared with $52.832 billion recorded the previous week.

The latest increase underscores continued growth in the country’s external liquidity amid higher inflows into the foreign exchange market.

As for the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) neared $80,000, gaining 1.5 per cent to $79,874.25, as traders awaited Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s first Jackson Hole keynote as futures reflected expectations for higher interest rates.

Jackson Hole is the Kansas City Federal Reserve’s annual symposium in Wyoming, where the chairman’s speech has a history of moving markets. Mr Warsh has, so far, given traders little on where he wants rates, making this the first real read on market clues before the September 16 FOMC meeting.

Solana (SOL) rose by 6.1 per cent to $107.37, TRON (TRX) went up by 1.7 per cent to $0.3401, Dogecoin (DOGE) added 1.6 per cent to sell at $0.0882, Ripple (XRP) expanded by 1.4 per cent to $1.40, Binance Coin (BNB) increased by 1.2 per cent to $713.01, Ethereum (ETH) jumped by 0.6 per cent to $2,502.78, and Cardano (ADA) soared by 0.5 per cent to $0.2105, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.