Nigerian Naira Weakens by 0.12% at Official Window

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Naira weakened against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Thursday, September 23.

Business Post reports that at the special FX window created by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the local currency lost 50 kobo or 0.12 per cent to trade at N413.68/$1 versus N412.18/$1 it traded on Wednesday.

It was observed that the decline occurred despite a reduction in the day’s turnover by 12.4 per cent or $24.79 million as trades worth $175.86 million were executed in contrast to the previous day’s turnover of $229.79 million, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.

Also, at the interbank window of the market, the domestic currency recorded a bad day against the American currency as it fell by 7 kobo or 0.02 per cent to close the day at N410.67/$1 compared with N411.60/$1 of the previous day.

Meanwhile, at the cryptocurrency market, investors are beginning to have confidence in the digital assets after an earlier scare caused by the Evergrande crisis in China.

Earlier, cryptocurrencies saw a selloff along with equities as there was a risk of default by the Chinese real estate company, but news that the US Federal Reserve would soon release research examining the costs and benefits of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by the US Fed Chairman, Mr Jerome Powell, at its September meeting cheered investors up.

Crypto enthusiasts and members of the financial industry are eagerly awaiting the Fed’s research, which was initially slated to be released before the year-end for hints on where policymakers stand on whether the United States should issue a CBDC.

On Thursday, this information pushed the value of Bitcoin (BTC) higher by 1.7 per cent to N25,294,452.93 and raised Ethereum (ETH) by 5.9 per cent to N1,854,897.79.

Tron (TRX) made a 0.9 per cent rise to sell for N55.61 just as Dash (DASH) and Litecoin (LTC) both made a 0.7 per cent appreciation to trade at N103,999.00 and N93,004.01 respectively.

Cardano (ADA) also pointed north by 0.8 per cent to trade at N1,353.82, Binance Coin (BNB) grew by 0.5 per cent to trade at N154,694.31, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) improved by 0.1 per cent to sell for N576.

However, Ripple (XRP) lost 1.9 per cent to trade at N577.50, while Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 0.1 per cent to sell at N132.29.