FX Liquidity Boosts Naira Value to N1,300/$1 at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira’s euphoric appreciation against the Dollar in the currency market continued on Wednesday, March 27, after it traded in the region of N1,300 per Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).

Data harvested from the FMDQ Securities Exchange by Business Post yesterday showed that the Naira value improved against the greenback by 5.9 per cent or N82.52 to quote at N1,300.44/$1 versus the previous day’s N1,382.95/$.

It was observed that the Nigerian Naira closed flat against the British Pound Sterling and the Euro in the spot market at midweek at N1,790.98/£1 and N1,712.69/€1, respectively.

The sustained gain in recent times has been attributed to the policy thrust of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), including the clearing of overdue FX backlogs, injection of funds into banks and approved sellers, as well unorthodox moves in conjunction with security agencies to clamp down on speculators and hoarders.

On Tuesday, the CBN Governor, Mr Yemi Cardoso said, “The exchange rate is moderating and we expect it to continue to moderate to a suitable rate.”

High forex liquidity has also been sustained with the value of FX transactions recorded yesterday going up by 69.4 per cent or $170.52 million to $416.10 million from the $245.58 million transacted on Tuesday.

As for the black market, the local currency appreciated against the US Dollar in the midweek trading session by N40 to sell for N1,310/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s value of N1,350/$1.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was sluggish on Wednesday amid continued profit-taking, as investors prepare for April, which is when the most anticipated Bitcoin halving will likely happen. The Bitcoin Halving is when Bitcoin’s mining reward is split in half.

During the trading day, Solana (SOL) lost 2.9 per cent to sell at $183.63, Ripple (XRP) lost 2.8 per cent to close at $0.6118, Cardano (ADA) dipped by 2.7 per cent to $0.6435, Ethereum (ETH) went down by 2.1 per cent to $3,515.48, Litecoin (LTC) fell by 1.6 per cent to $95.53, and Bitcoin (BTC) traded at $69,732.77.

But Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 7.0 per cent to $0.1978, and Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 1.6 per cent to $588.14, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat $1.00 each.