By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira depreciated against the US Dollar in the Peer-2-Peer (P2P), parallel market, and the Investors and Exporters (I&E) arms of the foreign exchange market on Thursday, June 15, as the country moves very closer to the harmonisation of these segments.
On Wednesday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released the local currency from its long-time shackles, allowing market parameters to determine its true value.
The apex bank announced the unification of all segments of the forex exchange (FX) market by collapsing them into the I&E window.
The CBN also eliminated schemes like the RT200 Rebate Scheme as well as the Naira4Dollar Remittance Scheme, which gave N5 for every Dollar remitted into the country. This is set to take off by the end of June.
Traders and customers reacted to this development on Thursday, with the domestic currency losing N36.15 or 5.8 per cent against the greenback in the official market to quote at a new low of N702.19/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N664.04/$1, as the value of forex transactions stood at $70.74 million.
In the P2P section, the Nigerian currency was exchanged with its American counterpart during the session at N772/$1 versus Wednesday’s exchange rate of N768/$1, indicating a decline of N4.
In the black market, the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar stood at N754/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s N753/$1, indicating a decline of N1.
However, in the interbank segment of the market, the Naira was traded against the Pound Sterling at N800.62/£1 and against the Euro at N684.02/€1.
In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) reacted to the decision of the US Federal Reserve to leave interest unchanged on Wednesday but signalled higher interest rates by the end of this year, gaining 2.4 per cent to sell at $25,678.30.
Also, Ethereum (ETH) jumped by 1.5 per cent to $1,674.59, Solana (SOL) appreciated by 3.9 per cent to $14.89, Dogecoin (DOGE) grew by 3.8 per cent to $0.0618, Litecoin (LTC) went up by 2.9 per cent to $74.95, Cardano (ADA) rose by 1.1 per cent to $0.2639, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 0.9 per cent gain to trade at $0.4827, while Binance Coin (BNB) added 0.8 per cent to sell for $237.77.
Meanwhile, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.
Modupe Gbadeyanka