Fresh Pressure Mounts on Naira, Weakens at P2P, Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

Fresh pressure mounted on the Naira on Monday at the black market and the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Monday, November 14, as it depreciated against the United States Dollar.

In the P2P forex window, the value of the Nigerian currency depreciated by N81 against the American currency to trade at N805/$1 yesterday compared with last Friday’s value of N724/$1.

Also, in the parallel market, the local currency lost N60 against the greenback during the session to quote at N755/$1, in contrast to the preceding session’s exchange rate of N695/$1.

However, the domestic currency appreciated against its US counterpart at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window yesterday by 10 Kobo or 0.06 per cent to trade at N446.00/$1 compared with last Friday’s N446.10/$1, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange amid the trading of FX worth $68.83 million.

But in the interbank segment of the market, the Naira depreciated against the Pound Sterling by N17.17 to close at N519.90/£1, in contrast to the preceding session’s N502.73/£1, and against the Euro, the nation’s legal tender lost N15.49 to close at N454.78/€1 compared with N439.29/€1.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market recorded a northward movement as clarity from the FTX crisis began to come to light, easing worries about the market, although gains remained capped.

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) made recoveries, with BTC gaining 4.9 per cent to sell at $16,763.55, and ETH growing by 6.1 per cent to sell at $1,256.52.

Further, Ripple (XRP) expanded by 13.7 per cent to settle at $0.372, Solana (SOL) appreciated by 11.3 per cent to $14.05, Dogecoin (DOGE) gained 6.1 per cent to trade at $0.0868, and Litecoin (LTC) climbed by 5.1 per cent to quote at $57.88.

In addition, Cardano (ADA) rose by 5.0 per cent to trade at $0.3341, Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 3.6 per cent growth to sell for $279.37, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) rose by 0.02 per cent to trade at $0.9989, while Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat at $1.00.