Naira Burnout Continues, Now N484/$1 at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira further dropped to N484 against the Dollar on Friday at the black market as the seasonal rush for foreign currencies devalued the local currency by N4.

At the previous session, the Nigerian currency was exchanged against the American currency at the parallel market at N480/$1.

An analysis by Business Post showed that for the five trading days of this week, the Naira has lost N14 or 3.0 per cent against the greenback at the black market after it opened the week at N470/41.

On Monday, it depreciated to N475/$1 and closed flat on Tuesday before declining to N478/$1 on Wednesday and crashed to N480/$1 on Thursday and crumbled to N484/$1 yesterday.

However, at the same black market, the value of the Naira remained unchanged against the Pound Sterling on Friday at N620/$1 and traded flat against the Euro at 570/€1.

At the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, the local currency depreciated at the against the Dollar by 33 kobo or 0.09 per cent to close at N385.83/$1 in contrast to N385.50/$1 it finished the previous day.

The depreciation of the Naira came despite the decline in the demand for the greenback at the market segment by 67.5 per cent or $138.95 million. This was because the day’s turnover dropped to $66.89 million from $205.84 million quoted on Thursday.

As the Naira faced an unfavourable outcome at the forex market, investors at the cryptocurrency market were smiling to the bank as the value of the seven digital tokens by Business Post on Quidax pointed north.

Ripple (XRP) gained 8.1 per cent to sell at N157.8, Ethereum (ETH) rose by 7.7 per cent to sell for N245,831.00, while Bitcoin appreciated by 4.2 per cent to sell at N8,890,987.36.

Also, the value of Litecoin (LTC) increased on Friday by 3.2 per cent to trade at N40,252.38, Dash (DASH) grew by 1.3 per cent to trade at 40,740.05, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) moved up by 0.5 per cent to sell for N479. 50, while Tron (TRX) gained 0.1 per cent to sell for N12.62.

Back to the FX market, where physical currencies are transacted. At the Bureaux De Change (BDCs) segment, the Naira/Dollar exchange rate stood at N386/$1, while at the interbank segment, the Naira to Dollar rate remained at N379/$1.