Naira Depreciates at I&E as Crypto Market Closes Bearish

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange market on Friday by 0.04 per cent or 16 kobo, closing at N385.83/$1 in contrast to N385.67/$1 it traded at the preceding session.

The poor performance of the local currency occurred despite the 24.7 per cent or $41.15 million decline in the transactions value at the session, though pressure continues to mount on the Naira.

According to data sourced from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, transactions worth $125.40 million were executed compared with the $166.55 million recorded on Thursday.

However, at the parallel market, according to data from abokiFX, the value of the Naira against the American currency remained unchanged at the close of business, trading at the previous rate of N462/$1.

Against the Pound, the local currency appreciated by N1 to close at N595/£1 compared with N596/£1 of the previous day, while on the Euro, the domestic currency recorded no movement, closing at the previous rate of N540/€1.

At the Bureaux De Change (BDC) segment of the foreign market, data from the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) showed that the Nigerian currency closed flat against the American currency at N386/$1.

At the interbank window of the forex market, the Naira/Dollar exchange remained intact at N379/$1 when market activities were wrapped up.

A look at the cryptocurrency market on Friday showed that prices of the digital money depreciated across the currencies tracked.

Business Post gathered from Quidax, a platform used for trading cryptocurrencies in Naira in Nigeria, that the value of Bitcoin (BTC) depreciated by 0.32 per cent to settle at N5.3 million.

For the Ethereum (ETH), it depreciated by 0.37 per cent to N171,902, the value of Litecoin (LTC) fell by 0.28 per cent to N22,063, while the value of the Ripple (XRP) went down by 0.03 per cent to settle at N112.69.