By Adedapo Adesanya
The shortage of foreign exchange (FX) at the market in Nigeria weakened the Naira against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters segment on Friday.
Data obtained by Business Post showed that the Naira depreciated by 0.08 per cent or 23 kobo at the market window yesterday to trade at N410/$1 in contrast to N409.67/$1 it was traded on Thursday.
It was observed that most traders could not meet the demand of their customers on Friday as a result of the Dollar shortage, causing the loss printed by the local currency.
Yesterday, transactions worth $46.43 million were carried at the investors’ window versus the $98.2 million recorded at the preceding session. This signified that the demand for FX declined by 52.7 per cent or $51.77 million.
A quick look at the unregulated window of the market on Friday indicated that the local currency maintained stability against the greenback as its value remained unchanged at N485/$.
The domestic currency also traded flat against the Pound Sterling at the parallel market yesterday as it closed at N680/£1, according to data from AbokiFX.
However, at the same black market, the Nigerian currency depreciated by N1 against the Euro at the session as it was sold at N583/€1 compared to N583/€1 it was transacted the previous day.
At the interbank segment of the forex market yesterday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) maintained the auction rate of the Naira against the Dollar to commercial banks at N379/$1.
Meanwhile, at the cryptocurrency market, five out of the seven tokens tracked by Business Post on the Quidax trading platform closed negative.
The US Dollar Tether (USDT) was the heaviest loser as its value went down by 11.7 per cent to sell for N545.00; the Ripple (XRP) recorded a 6.3 per cent loss to sell at N280.03; while Dash (DASH) dropped 3.0 per cent to sell at N134,000.92.
Furthermore, the Bitcoin (BTC) depreciated by 0.8 per cent to trade at N35,299,688.00; while the Litecoin (LTC) went down by 1.9 per cent to trade at N124,989.99.
Leading the gainers’ chart at the session was the Tron (TRX) as its value went up by 14.2 per cent to N37.48, while the Ethereum (ETH) grew by 0.9 per cent to N1,131,977.00.
