Naira Appreciates to N739/$1 at P2P, Falls to N441.17/$1 at I&E

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira appreciated against the greenback at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Tuesday and depreciated against the American currency at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window.

Business Post reports that in the P2P segment, the value of the local currency to the US Dollar was N739/$1 yesterday compared with the previous session’s N741/$1 and in the I&E segment, it closed at N441.17/$1 compared with last Friday’s value of N439.17/$1, indicating a decline of N2 or 0.46 per cent.

It was observed that forex scarcity was one of the reasons the local currency performed badly against its American counterpart in the market window despite a moderation in the demand for the hard currency.

The value of transactions at the spot market, according to FMDQ Securities Exchange, stood at $73.66 million, 26.1 per cent or $26.04 million lower than the $99.70 million recorded in the preceding trading day.

In the interbank segment, the exchange rate of the Naira to Pound Sterling remained unchanged on Tuesday at N487.34/£1 and against the Euro, it also closed flat at N425.87/€1.

In the black market, the Nigerian Naira depreciated against the US Dollar yesterday by N2 to settle at N733/$1 in contrast to the preceding session’s exchange rate of N731/$1 as commercial banks struggle to meet the FX requests of the customers, who turn to forex hawkers on the streets.

Meanwhile, in the cryptocurrency market, the bears tightened their grip on the market as a worsening global outlook showed that headwinds will continue in the global economy, leading investors to take a cautionary approach.

Solana (SOL) lost 4.6 per cent to sell at $30.68, Cardano (ADA) fell by 4.0 per cent to trade at $0.39, Ripple (XRP) declined by 3.2 per cent to $0.4845, and Litecoin (LTC) went down by 2.0 per cent to $51.89.

Furthermore, Ethereum (ETH) slipped by 1.3 per cent to sell at $1,277.36, Bitcoin (BTC) lost 0.7 per cent to close at $19,023.85, Binance Coin (BNB) shed 0.7 per cent to quote at $270.79, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) dropped 0.01 per cent to sell at $0.9999.

However, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 0.6 per cent to trade $0.0602, and Binance USD improved its value by 0.07 per cent to $1.00.