FX Scarcity Pushes Naira Back to N500/$1 at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The shortage of Dollar supply in the foreign exchange (FX) market in Nigeria pushed back the Naira to the N500/$1 region at the black market on Monday.

Business Post reports that the FX scarcity heightened yesterday, causing the local currency to depreciate against the US Dollar at the parallel market by N2.

At the previous trading session, which was last Friday, the domestic currency had closed against the greenback at N498/$1 at the unregulated segment of the market.

It was observed that the Nigerian currency performed badly on Monday as a result of the FX liquidity squeeze at the regulated window, especially at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment.

However, the Naira traded flat against the Pound Sterling at the black market yesterday at N710/£1 and appreciated against the Euro by N3 to sell at N592/€1 in contrast to N595/€1 it traded previously.

At the I&E window, the local currency depreciated against the American currency by 67 kobo or 0.16 per cent to trade at N411.67/$1 as against N411/$1 of the last session.

This was caused by an increase in the demand for forex at the segment, which could not be matched by supply.

Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the turnover for the day rose by $19.36 million or 25.9 per cent to $94.17 million from $74.81 million recorded at the preceding trading day.

But at the interbank segment of the market, the value of the Naira to the Dollar remained unchanged at N410.20/$1 yesterday.

Cryptocurrencies Plunge Heavily as Crackdown Intensifies

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market continues to wallow in pains on Monday and this was caused by sustained crackdown in China, where authorities in the southwest province of Sichuan last week ordered Bitcoin mining projects to close.

Bitcoin (BTC) went down by 11.7 per cent yesterday to trade at N16,090,010.49, Ethereum declined by 10.9 per cent to sell at N1,029,999.00, while Ripple (XRP) fell by 7.3 per cent to trade at N344.00.

Furthermore, Litecoin (LTC) went down by 21.3 per cent to sell at N64,501.01, Dash (DASH) crashed by 13.2 per cent to N67,061.05, Tron (TRX) dropped 19.9 per cent to sell at N28.04, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) crumbled by 0.7 per cent to N511.99.