By Adedapo Adesanya
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) seems to have signalled plans to gradually merge the exchange rate regimes in the country into one, as directed by President Bola Tinubu in his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023.
This is because the exchange rate of the Naira to the US Dollar was adjusted on Thursday in the official market, which is the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market.
Data obtained by Business Post from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, the official channel to track the government-approved FX market, indicated that the local currency was devalued by 1.04 per cent or N4.83 to N469.50/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N464.67$1.
It was observed customers bid the Naira to the Dollar in the spot market yesterday as low as N460.00/$1 and as high as N476.50/$1, amid a significant decrease in the value of forex transactions recorded during the session.
Data showed that the turnover for the trading day was $74.18 million compared with the previous day’s $140.31 million, representing a shortfall of 47.1 per cent or $66.13 million.
Also, in the black market, the Naira depreciated against the United States currency by N2 on Thursday to trade at N760/$1 compared with the midweek session’s rate of N758/$1.
However, in the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) segment, the domestic currency gained N2 against the greenback to close at N770/$1 versus Wednesday’s value of N772/$1.
In the interbank window, the Naira shed N4.31 against the Pound Sterling to quote at N576.99/£1 versus its previous rate of N572.68/£1 and lost N1.89 against the Euro to settle at N495.79/€1, in contrast to Wednesday’s N493.90/€1.
The cryptocurrency market recovered yesterday as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s crackdown on heavyweight cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Coinbase (COIN) failed to shake the market further as Bitcoin (BTC) added 1.3 per cent to sell at $26,597.62, while Ethereum (ETH) grew by 1.2 per cent to $1,851.27.
Binance Coin (BNB) jumped by 2.2 per cent to $263.72, Solana (SOL) gained 2.1 per cent to sell at $18.98, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 2.0 per cent rise to $0.5266, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 1.4 per cent to $0.0680, Cardano (ADA) added 0.9 per cent to its value to close at $0.3246, and Litecoin (LTC) rose by 0.5 per cent to $88.80, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.
Dipo Olowookere