Naira Closes Stronger Against Dollar, Euro at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira closed stronger against the US Dollar and the Euro at the unregulated segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Monday, April 12.

At the black market, which caters for demands not met by government-regulated channels, the local currency gained N3 in value on the US currency as it sold for N482/$1 in contrast to N485/$1 it was quoted last Friday.

Following the same pattern, the Nigerian currency appreciated by N4 against the Euro at the parallel market to sell at N570/€1 compared with the previous rate of N574/€1.

However, the Naira could not replicate this feat against the Pound Sterling at the same market segment yesterday as it closed flat at N670/£1.

A look at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the FX market showed that the Naira depreciated against the greenback on Monday by 0.18 per cent or 75 kobo to wrap up the day at N409.75/$1 as against N409/$1 it finished at the earlier session.

The local currency performed woefully yesterday despite a decline in the demand for forex at the segment by $9.86 million or 17.9 per cent as transactions worth $45.35 million were recorded in contrast to $55.21 million executed last Friday.

The shortage of Dollars to meet the demand of customers may have caused the decline in the value of the Nigerian currency at the investors’ window yesterday.

But at the interbank segment of the market, the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar remained unchanged on Monday as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) maintained the auction-rate to commercial banks at N379/$1.

As for the digital currency market, the outcome was mostly bearish as only three of the seven cryptocurrencies tracked by Business Post closed bullish.

The Bitcoin (BTC) gained 0.9 per cent to trade at N29,441,205.20; the Litecoin (LTC) moved up by 0.7 per cent to trade at N119,722.89; while the Tron (TRX) appreciated by 8.8 per cent to sell at N66.94.

The Ethereum (ETH) and others were not lucky as its value went down by 0.3 per cent to N1,046,718.72; the Ripple (XRP) lost 2.6 per cent to trade at N694.80; the Dash (DASH) dropped 1.9 per cent to N140,500; while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) crashed by 0.3 per cent to N500.99.