Naira Appreciates to N878.61/$1 at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira closed stronger against the US Dollar in the official foreign exchange window, the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), by 5.1 per cent or N46.73 on Tuesday, January 23.

The exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar in the spot market for the trading day was N878.61/$1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N925.34/$1.

However, the Nigerian Naira plunged against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N34.60 to close at N1,163.87/£1 versus its previous rate of N1,129.27/£1, and against the Euro, the domestic currency lost N26.36 to sell for N996.05/€1 compared with Monday’s price of N969.69/€1.

Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the value of FX transactions for Tuesday was $58.46 million, 20.3 per cent or $14.87 million lower than the $73.33 million reported in the previous day.

In the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window of the market, the local currency weakened against the American currency by N12 on Tuesday to trade at N1,369/$1, in contrast to the N1,357/$1 it was sold a day earlier.

Also, in the parallel market, the value of the Naira to the US Dollar depreciated on Tuesday by N5 to quote at N1,365/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,360/$1.

In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin has dropped 20 per cent since its peak of $49,000 earlier this month after the United States approved its first spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), as investors who had bought in expectation of the approval sold after the confirmation. The world’s largest cryptocurrency lost 0.3 per cent to sell at $39,684.17.

Ethereum (ETH) dropped 3.2 per cent to $2,238.34, Dogecoin (DOGE) declined by 2.7 per cent to $0.0781, Litecoin (LTC) dipped by 2.5 per cent to trade at $65.39, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 2.4 per cent to $297.00, Ripple (XRP) shrank by 1.7 per cent to $0.5171, and Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 0.5 per cent to $0.4756.

However, Solana (SOL) rose by 0.5 per cent to $83.74, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) appreciated by 0.04 per cent to $0.9993, while the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00.