Naira Gains 0.11% Against US Dollar at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira improved its value against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Monday, September 21, by N1.48 or 0.11 per cent to N1,329.80/$1 from N1,331.20/$1.

However, it weakened against the Pound Sterling in the same market window by N9.84 to close at N1,781.00/£1 compared with the previous session’s N1,771.16/£1, and lost 78 Kobo on the Euro to sell for N1,527.14/€1 versus last Friday’s rate of N1,526.36/€1.

But the Nigerian currency gained N1 against the US Dollar at the GTBank forex desk yesterday to settle at N1,337/$1, in contrast to the previous trading day’s N1,338/$1, and at the black market, it traded flat at N1,370/$1.

The market recorded a slowdown in financial institution activities, with both turnover and deal counts slowing down from previous records.

Data released by the CBN showed that interbank FX turnover fell by 28.4% to $116.413 million on Monday, down from $162.670 million at the previous close.

The US Dollar volume was generated across 102 FX deals at the interbank window, down from 127 deals on Friday.

Nigeria’s gross external reserves topped $54.72 billion on sustained FX inflows from multiple sources, including diaspora remittances and crude oil sales.

As for the cryptocurrency market, it was in the green during the session after more than $1 billion in crypto positions were liquidated over the past day, including $844 million in bearish bets, suggesting further gains will depend on new buying rather than a continued short squeeze.

Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 12.1 per cent to $0.0998, Ripple (XRP) grew by 5.5 per cent to $1.51, Bitcoin (BTC) expanded by 4.3 per cent to $85,255.26, Cardano (ADA) increased by 4.2 per cent to $0.2436, and Solana (SOL) jumped by 4.0 per cent to $116.59.

Further, Ethereum (ETH) soared by 2.1 per cent to $2,726.78, Binance Coin (BNB) added 1.8 per cent to sell at $786.41, and TRON (TRX) advanced by 1.6 per cent to $0.3489, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.