Local Currency Weakens 0.06% to N1,501.95/$1 at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

It was a bad day for the local currency in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday as its value shrank against the US Dollar by 0.06 per cent or N95 Kobo to trade at N1,501.95/$1 compared with Monday’s exchange rate of N1,501.00/$1.

It also weakened against the Euro in the official market during the trading session by 95 Kobo to quote at N1,570.11/€1, in contrast to the preceding session’s value of N1,569.16/€1, but appreciated against the British Pound Sterling by N1.90 to wrap the session at N1,894.72/£1 versus the previous day’s N1,896.62/£1.

In the black market, the Nigerian Naira improved its value against the Dollar by N10 to sell at N1,490/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N1,500/$1.

The performance of the domestic currency in the official market tumbled yesterday amid a drop in the country’s foreign reserves below $40 billion, having lost over $2 billion in the last month, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) continued to prop up the market.

The fall indicates that currency may be volatile in coming weeks after maintaining stability in the past weeks.

The CBN has also helped the Naira by clearing a backlog of orders to sell Naira for foreign currency and boosting Dollar supply to the bureau de change (BDC) operators.

As for the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) fell below the $90,000 mark on Tuesday after losing 3.5 per cent to tarde at $88,688.35, and Ethereum (ETH) went down by 0.5 per cent to $2,490.22.

However, Litecoin (LTC) gained 4.9 per cent to sell at $119.26, Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 2.9 per cent to $625.95, Solana (SOL) rose by 2.3 per cent to $142.56, Ripple (XRP) grew by 1.2 per cent to $2.30, Cardano (ADA) jumped by 0.9 per cent to trade at $0.6879, and Dogecoin (DOGE) expanded by 0.1 per cent to settle at $0.3271, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.