Economy
EXPLAINER: Real Reason for the Recent Sudden Rise in Naira to Dollar Rate at P2P
By Dipo Olowookere
On Friday, a few cryptocurrency exchange platforms like Kucoin, Bybit and others were in the news, especially on X, formerly known as Twitter, where they trended as a result of a sharp rise in the Naira to Dollar exchange rate.
Some persons were scared that the gains recorded recently by the Naira may begin to erode and began to call for the heads of these platforms like Binance, which was forced to stop its operations in Nigeria because of allegations of currency manipulation.
The company, Binance, and two of its employees have still not been cleared of the issues they have with the Nigerian government, which has arraigned them before a federal high court.
Yesterday, many claimed that some forex manipulators have rushed to the other crypto exchange apps to begin to fight back, blaming them for the recent fall in the value of the Naira in the parallel market.
Business Post reports that while the Nigerian Naira has witnessed a decline in its value against the US Dollar, not much has happened in the black market.
Though on Friday, the Naira lost 1.4 per cent or N15.91 to trade at N1,169.99/$1 compared with the previous day’s rate of N1.154.08/$1, and in the parallel market, it weakened by N30 against the Dollar to quote at N1,150/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s exchange rate of N1,120/$1.
As earlier stated, the decline in the local currency was blamed on the trading of cryptocurrencies by some people, but this is entirely not true.
“You claimed that the Naira’s fall has nothing to do with trading cryptocurrencies, but the Naira has appreciated from N1,900 to N950 to the Dollar since FG banned Binance.
“Oga NSA (National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu), what you did for Binance, do for Bybit, Kucoin, and OKX; they moved from Binance to these platforms,” one of the commenters wrote.
Another wrote, “Since Wednesday, the Dollar has started to increase again at BDC. Here is why, the emergency lovers of Binance are back speculating on other P2P (peer-to-peer). They will keep adding N50, N50 every day until they take it back to N2,500, which was their initial plan and recoup their loss. CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) act now.”
“On this issue, I reached out to a source in the relevant security agency and I was reliably informed that it has been flagged as imminent danger and it’s being looked into.
“I am told that they (security agency) may have to expend their hands to them, just like they did to Binance.
“I am told that the NSA (Nuhu Ribadu) has a keen interest in currency manipulation activities as a means of economic sabotage. This is all I am allowed to say for now,” another stated.
However, Business Post can say that the recent weakening of the Naira may have not been entirely caused by manipulators.
For those in the crypto landscape, who trade digital currencies with USDT, which is pegged at the Dollar rate, the recent rise in the value of the US currency against its Nigerian counterpart may have been caused by the Bitcoin halving, which happened on Friday.
Yesterday, Bitcoin (BTC), which is the world’s largest cryptocurrency, completed its fourth ever “halving,” a phenomenon that happens roughly every four years.
It is always anticipated that the value of this digital coin will increase after the halving and the quest to be part of it triggered the demand for USDT and the rise in the exchange rate at these cryptocurrency exchange platforms.
Crypto traders in Nigeria on these platforms had to cough out more Naira to buy the USDT, which was already in high demand because of the BTC halving.
Now that the process has ended, you should expect to see a downward trend in the price of USDT or Dollar in the P2P market in the coming days.
For further clarification, please hit the comment section below.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
One of the paint makers in Nigeria, Premier Paints Plc, is currently in talks with a new investor, Xenergi Limited, for the purchase of 51 per cent stake in the company.
Xenergi Limited intends to acquire shares of Clover Global Resources Limited and TGHL Capital Limited in the organisation.
Business Post gathered that the new investor will buy 39.02 per cent from Clover Global Resources Limited and 15.20 per cent from TGHL Capital Limited.
The deal, according to a regulatory notice issued on Tuesday on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, will involve about 63 million shares of Premier Paints.
At the current share price of the paint producer, this should be about N630 million as it closed at N10.00 per unit on NGX on December 16, 2025.
“Subject to obtaining required regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to close before January 31, 2026.
“The company will continue to inform the public of the progress of the transaction,” the disclosure signed by the company secretary, Alozie Nwokoro, said.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira was flat against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Tuesday, December 16, retaining the previous closing value of N1,451.82/$1.
In the same vein, the local currency saw no movement against the Pound Sterling and the Euro in the spot market during the session at N1,943.98/£1 and N1,705.74/€1, respectively.
Also, the Nigerian Naira remained unchanged in the black market yesterday at N1,475/$1 and was N1,460/$1 at the GTBank forex counter.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has strengthened US Dollar supply with $250 million to authorised dealer banks at the official window cumulatively as foreign portfolio investors, exporters and non-bank corporate supply dripped.
The spread between official and other non-regulated markets decreased to N30.59$/1 from N44.57/$1, from the previous week, research subsidiary of Coronation Merchant Bank Limited said in a report.
FX analysts said foreign exchange inflows through the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market decreased to $716.3 million from $844.70 million in the previous week , a 15 per cent drop in a week.
Foreign portfolio investors accounted for the highest share of inflows at 32.98 per cent, followed by exporters at 30.84 per cent, the CBN (17.36 per cent), Non-bank Corporates (16.94 per cent), others (0.72 per cent) and Individuals (0.63 per cent).
On Monday, Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased to 14.45 per cent in November 2025, down from 16.05 per cent recorded in October, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), representing a decrease of 1.6 percentage points month-on-month and marks a significant moderation compared to the same period last year.
As for the cryptocurrency market, there was some recoveries after overall capitalization falling below $3 trillion for the third time in a month. Large-cap assets, particularly those with Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) exposure, are experiencing selling pressure as institutional investors reassess risk.
Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 1.5 per cent to $1.92, Litecoin (LTC) expanded by 1.5 per cent to $78.91, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 0.8 per cent to $0.1308, Solana (SOL) went up by 0.4 per cent to $127.60, Binance Coin (BNB) grew by 0.3 per cent to $865.40, and Bitcoin (BTC) gained 0.2 per cent to sell at $86,735.17.
On the flip side, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 1.0 per cent to $0.3802 and Ethereum (ETH) slumped by 0.4 per cent to $2,935.85, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) were flat at $1.00 each.
By Dipo Olowookere
A marginal 0.01 per cent rise was recorded by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Tuesday. This was different from the flattish mode of the market the previous day.
Investor sentiment remained bullish as Customs Street finished with 31 price gainers and 26 price losers, implying a positive market breadth index.
Aluminium Extrusion topped the gainers’ log after it improved its price by 10.00 per cent to N9.35, Guinness Nigeria appreciated by 9.98 per cent to N263.40, Multiverse expanded by 9.95 per cent to N12.15, MeCure Industries also soared by 9.95 per cent to N45.85, and Sovereign Trust Insurance advanced by 9.89 per cent to N4.11.
Conversely, Haldane McCall led the losers’ chart after it shed 9.93 per cent to settle at N3.72, Veritas Kapital lost 9.09 per cent to close at N1.60, LivingTrust Mortgage Bank also declined by 9.09 per cent to N3.50, and Linkage Assurance depreciated by 5.71 per cent to N1.65.
During the trading day, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 21.23 points to 149,459.11 points from the previous day’s 149,437.88 points and the market capitalisation increased by N14 billion to N95.281 trillion from N95.267 trillion.
Yesterday, traders transacted 1.0 billion equities for N21.8 billion in 23,701 deals compared with the 553.1 million equities valued at N13.3 billion traded in 28,907 deals on Monday, representing a decline in the number of deals by 18.01 per cent, and a surge in the trading volume and value by 80.80 per cent and 63.91 per cent apiece.
Access Holdings traded 385.8 million stocks worth N7.7 billion, Champion Breweries transacted 111.8 million shares valued at N817.8 million, Sterling Holdings exchanged 85.5 million equities for N589.9 million, FCMB sold 74.7 million shares valued at N791.5 million, and First Holdco transacted 51.9 million equities worth N1.8 billion.
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