Naira Crashes to N1,035/$1 at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira extended its weak start to the year to the second trading session on Wednesday, January 3, crashing by 4.7 per cent or N46.66 against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) to trade at N1,035.12/$1 versus the preceding session’s N988.46/$1.

The domestic currency also weakened against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N10.54 to sell for N1,155.11/£1 compared with the previously traded rate of N1,144.57/£1 and against the Euro, it lost N7.39 to trade at N1,002.49/€1, in contrast to the preceding day’s value of N995.10/€1.

Unlike the previous day, the value of foreign exchange (FX) transactions in the midweek session at the spot market soared by 457.1 per cent or $70.3 million to $85.68 million from the $15.38 million quoted on Tuesday.

However, the spill over mounted forex demand pressure in the unregulated market segments as the local currency also weakened against the greenback in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) arm of the market by N10 to finish at N1,213/$1 compared with the previous day’s rate of N1,203/$1.

In the same vein, the Nigerian currency lost N10 against its American counterpart in the parallel market window in the midweek session to quote at N1,230/$1 versus the previous day’s exchange rte of N1,220/$1.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was mixed as Bitcoin (BTC) remained up at the $45,000 mark, though it slid by 0.1 per cent to sell at $45,285.95 after the market eased an earlier panic that the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) will likely reject the spot exchange-traded fund (ETF).

A report from crypto financial services platform, Matrixport, led with an assertion that the US regulator “will reject” the much-expected spot ETF.

Solana (SOL) shed 3.2 per cent to sell at $109.10, Litecoin (LTC) dropped 2.0 per cent to trade at $73.34, Cardano (ADA) went down by 1.5 per cent to $0.6159, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 1.2 per cent to $0.0918, and Ethereum (ETH) fell by 0.1 per cent to $2,397.40.

However, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 0.5 per cent jump to trade at $0.6333, and Binance Coin (BNB) grew by 0.4 per cent to $109.10, while the US Dollar Tether (USDt) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.