By Adedapo Adesanya
The liquidity crisis in the foreign exchange (FX) market in Nigeria further caused devastating damage to the Naira at the black market on Monday.
The local currency traded against the United States Dollar at a new all-time low of N532/$1 at the unregulated forex market yesterday as the FX liquidity crisis deepens.
At the preceding session, which was last Friday, the domestic currency had closed at the same market window at N530/$1, indicating that it lost N2 or 0.38 per cent as a result of demand pressure.
At the same parallel market, the domestic currency lost N1 against the Pound Sterling yesterday to sell for N723/£1 compared with N722/£1 of the preceding session and against the Euro, it further depreciated by N3 to close at N625/€1 in contrast to N622/€1 it sold at the prior trading session.
It was not a different scenario at the interbank segment, which is the official exchange rate window of the country as the Naira lost one kobo against the American currency to quote at N410.41/$1 versus the previous session’s N410.40/$1.
But the Nigerian currency appreciated against the greenback at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the market on Monday by 37 kobo or 0.09 per cent to settle at N411.13/$1 in contrast to N411.50/$1 of the preceding trading day.
This followed a decline in the turnover for the day at the market window yesterday as trades worth $97.54 million were carried out compared with the previous $127.51 million, implying a decline by $29.97 million or 23.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, at the cryptocurrency market on Monday, it was the bears’ world as they controlled the space, causing the value of four of the seven digital coins tracked by Business Post to face south.
Dash (DASH) lost 1.9 per cent to trade at N139,188.90, Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 0.8 per cent to N117,999.00, Tron (TRX) fell by 0.5 per cent to trade at N55.35, while the US Dollar Tether went down by 0.3 per cent to sell at N530.46.
However, ahead of plans to make El Salvador the first country on earth to accept Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender, the world’s most popular currency gained 2.8 per cent to sell at N27,459,965.96.
There is a growing movement on social media as users on platforms, including Twitter and Reddit, are discussing plans to buy $30 worth of Bitcoin collectively on the September 7 to mark the law coming into effect.
Ripple jumped 7.3 per cent to trade at N727.56, while Ethereum (ETH) recorded a 3.7 per cent appreciation to sell at N2,078,277.38.
Dipo Olowookere