Fresh Pressure Mounts on Naira, Trades N482/$1 at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

Fresh pressure returned on the Naira at the black market segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Monday as it lost its battle against the US Dollar.

During the trading session, the local currency depreciated by N7 to sell for N482/$1 in contrast to the previous session’s rate of N475/$1.

Last week, calm was gradually returning to the parallel market after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced a new policy that allows beneficiaries of foreign remittances to withdraw their money over-the-counter in the currency of the origin of the fund transfer. But yesterday’s performance of the domestic is already casting doubts on the effectiveness of this policy.

However, the Naira performed better against the British currency, the Pound Sterling, at the black market on Monday, appreciating by N10 to trade at N615/£ in contrast to the previous rate of N625/£1 while it closed flat on the Euro at N570/€1.

Business Post gathered that at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window yesterday, the Naira traded flat against the greenback at N395/$1 and the stability was supported by the fall in the demand for FX at the segment.

It was observed that during the session, transactions worth $110.23 million were carried, $128.94 million or 53.9 per cent lower than last Friday’s $239.17 million.

At the Bureaux De Change (BDC) segment of the market, the value of the local currency to the American currency remained flat at N392/$1. In the same vein, the Naira traded flat against the United States Dollar at the interbank segment on Monday at N379/$1.

Meanwhile, at the cryptocurrency market, things were better as the value of the Litecoin (LTC) went up by 1.6 per cent to N39,867.68, the United States Dollar Tether (USDT) gained 1.2 per cent to sell for N481.55, while Ethereum (ETH) improved by 0.8 per cent to trade at N286,079.99.

Furthermore, the value of the Bitcoin (BTC) appreciated by 0.6 per cent to sell at N9,210,642.99, the Ripple (RPX) gained 0.2 per cent to close at N292.00, while the Dash (DASH) went up by 0.2 per cent to sell at N49,311.03.

Only the Tron (TRX) performed badly yesterday as it lost 1.6 per cent to settle at N14.57.