Naira Appreciates at Official Market, Depreciates at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira moved in different directions in the two major segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market in Nigeria on Thursday, October 22.

In the black market window, the Nigerian currency lost N2 against the United States Dollar yesterday to quote at N1,360/$1 compared with Wednesday’s rate of N1,358/$1.

It equally depreciated against the greenback at the GTBank forex desk during the session by N3 to close at N1,343/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s N1,340/$1.

However, it gained 32 Kobo or 0.02 per cent against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) to settle at N1,334.40/$1 versus N1,334.72/$1.

Against the Pound Sterling at the official market, the local currency depleted by N10.55 to N1,798.28/£1 from N1,787.73/£1 and declined against the Euro by N7.12 to N1,506.41/€1 from N1,499.29/€1.

Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that interbank FX turnover rose 148 per cent to $316.545 million from $127.628 million, while the number of FX deals increased to 181 deals from 95 deals.

The Naira is now expected to weaken as importers buy hard currency ahead of the holiday ‌season and investors take profits on securities.

Market participants noted that central bank ​intervention would be needed next week to ease pressure on the currency.

As for the cryptocurrency market, it remained depressed as traders liquidated several futures positions over 24 hours, including $385 million in bullish bets.

Persistently high oil prices and weak demand for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which recorded $381 million in outflows Thursday, could limit a broader rally in risk assets.

Ethereum (ETH) dipped by 1.4 per cent to $2,401.89, Ripple (XRP) lost 1.3 per cent to end at $1.32, Bitcoin (BTC) depreciated by 1.2 per cent to $81,761.28, Cardano (ADA) slumped by 0.9 per cent to $0.2166, Solana (SOL) crashed by 0.5 per cent to $104.35, and TRON (TRX) went down by 0.3 per cent to $0.3293.

But Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 0.5 per cent to $741.40, and Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 0.2 per cent to $0.0798, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.