Naira Firms to N1,328 Per Dollar as CBN Intervenes in FX Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the foreign exchange (FX) market on Thursday, September 10, further boosted the value of the Naira in the official market.

The domestic currency firmed up N1.00 or 0.08 per cent against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) during the session to N1,328.22/$1 from N1,329.22/$1 on Wednesday.

Similarly, the local currency appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the same market window yesterday by N3.93 to close at N1,798.22/£1 compared with Wednesday’s closing rate of N1,802.15/£1, and gained N7.28 on the Euro to trade at N1,540.99/€1 versus midweek’s N1,548.27/€1.

However, at the GTBank forex counter, the Nigerian Naira depreciated against the US Dollar yesterday by N10.00 to sell at N1,340/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,330/$1, and at the black market, it remained unchanged at N1,375/$1.

Yesterday, the central bank injected about $151 million into the FX ecosystem to boost supply and strengthen the local currency.

CardinalStone disclosed in its market update posted on Thursday that the lender sold $151.0 million at rates between N1,322.71 and N1,331.50 per Dollar.

The apex bank’s intervention is a deliberate effort to strengthen the local currency after it fell heavily in the recent session due to demand pressure.

This came as Nigeria’s gross external reserves rose to $54.283 billion, giving the country a healthy, stronger buffer to defend the local currency and absorb shocks.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market remained weak during the session after hotter-than-expected producer inflation drove Treasury yields higher and increased expectations for a Federal Reserve rate increase.

August producer prices rose 5.4 per cent in the US and pushed 30-year Treasury yields to a 19-year high. Higher real yields drain crypto through two channels at once. They make government debt competitive with an asset that pays nothing, and they raise the cost of carrying leverage.

Friday’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the next input, and a hot print would put a Federal Reserve hike back into the price of everything that fell on Thursday.

Ripple (XRP) slumped by 2.9 per cent to $1.34, Dogecoin (DOGE) declined by 2.2 per cent to $0.0855, Solana (SOL) shrank by 2.1 per cent to $99.82, Cardano (ADA) slipped by 2.0 per cent to $0.2095, and Bitcoin (BTC) fell by 1.5 per cent to $77,255.53.

Further, Binance Coin (BNB) went down by 0.8 per cent to $716.29, Ethereum (ETH) decreased by 0.4 per cent to $2,468.51, and TRON (TRX) tumbled by 0.3 per cent to $0.3398, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) tarded flat at $1.00 apiece.