Naira Trades N462/$1 at Black Market to End Week Stronger

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira ended the week stronger against the Dollar at the parallel market as it gained N3 on Friday to close at N462/$1 compared to the previous rate of N465/$1.

The strengthening of the local currency came a day after the foreign exchange market in Nigeria returned from the Eid-el-Maulud break.

At the same segment of the FX market, the domestic currency appreciated by N4 against the Pound yesterday to wrap the day at N596/£1 as against N600/£1 of the previous session but remained unchanged against the Euro at N542/€1.

However, it was good at the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window on Friday as Business Post observed that the Nigerian currency was under pressure.

This suppressed the Naira against the United States Dollar 0.09 per cent or 33 kobo to N386/$1 from the previous rate of N385.67/$1.

According to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, the demand for forex at the segment yesterday increased by 194.2 per cent or $141.77 million as transactions worth $214.77 million were executed compared with the $73.01 million recroded on Wednesday.

But at the interbank window of the market, the value of the Naira to the greenback remained static at N379/$1 at the close of transactions.

It was a similar outcome at the Bureaux De Change (BDC) segment of the FX market yesterday as the value of the Nigerian currency traded flat against the American currency at N386/$1, according to data obtained from the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON).

At the cryptocurrency market on Friday, it was a mixed outcome for the digital currencies monitored on a popular platform used for trading cryptocurrencies in Naira, Quidax.

For example, Bitcoin (BTC) recorrded a 0.14 per cent gain yesterday to trade at N6,249,898.99, Dash (DASH) rose by 2.47 per cent to sell at N32,381.99, while the Litecoin (LTC) sold for 25,600.00 after gaining 0.38 per cent.

However, the Ethereum (ETH) lost 1.28 per cent to sell for N178,676, the Ripple (RPX) depreciated by 1.55 per cent to trade for N110.76, Tether (USDT) slid by 0.93 per cent to N464.64, while Tron (TRX) went down 2.26 per cent to N12.12.