Naira Depreciates to N1,329/$1 at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Naira suffered a loss against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, September 25.

The local currency shrank against the greenback in the official market during the session by 18 Kobo to close at N1,329.51/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s N1,328.67/$1.

It also weakened against the Pound Sterling in the same market segment yesterday by N4.04 to close at N1,762.40/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,758.36/£1, and lost N3.88 against the Euro to trade at N1,515.51/€1 versus N1,511.63/€1.

However, the Naira traded flat against the parallel market on Friday at N1,370/$1, and also traded flat at the GTBank FX desk at N1,336/$1.

Forex turnover for the trading session increased by 4.9 per cent to $111.064 million from $105.90 million on Thursday, with the number of deals growing to 108 deals from 103 deals, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The Naira is expected to remain relatively stable around current levels, supported by the central bank intervention to provide liquidity following the surprise 350 basis points interest rate cut announced on Tuesday.

The stability reflects the CBN’s efforts to support foreign exchange liquidity and its apparent willingness to intervene to limit pressure on the Naira.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market soared, as renewed talks between the United States and Iran have brought another proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz into focus, with lower oil prices potentially easing one of the pressures that has kept Treasury yields elevated.

This could push oil prices lower and ease some of the inflation and Treasury yield pressure weighing on risk assets.

Similar attempts to reopen Hormuz have raised market hopes several times in recent months before negotiations or agreements broke down.

Solana (SOL) added 3.6 per cent to sell at $120.57, Cardano (ADA) expanded by 2.8 per cent to $0.2552, Dogecoin (DOGE) grew by 2.5 per cent to $0.0979, Ripple (XRP) jumped by 1.1 per cent to $1.55, Ether (ETH) gained 0.5 per cent to sell for $2,689.87, and Bitcoin (BTC) improved by 0.2 per cent to $83,996.94.

But TRON (TRX) depreciated by 0.4 per cent to $0.3371, and Binance Coin (BNB) went down by 0.1 per cent to $773.31, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.