Naira Crashes to N1,520/$1 at Official Market as FX Supply Shrinks

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Naira extended its loss against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday, May 14 as it fell by 2.9 per cent or N42.29 to N1,520.40/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,478.76/$1.

However, the Naira improved its value against the Pound Sterling in the official market by N59.52 during the trading day to quote at N1,767.62/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,827.14/£1 and gained N51.91 against the Euro to finish at N1,520.16/€1 versus N1,572.07/€1 it closed a day earlier.

The mixed performance of the domestic currency against the three key foreign currencies yesterday amid a shrink in the value of FX transacted at the spot market, as the turnover went down by $88.88 million or 40.8 per cent to $128.76 million from the $217.64 million executed at the last session.

The renewed Naira depreciation after the gains in April 2024 has been attributed to a shortage of dollars occasioned by the repatriation of funds by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs).

A look at the parallel market showed that the Naira weakened against the Dollar during the session by N20 to sell at N1,520/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s N1,500/$1.

As for the digital currency market, most of the tokens tracked by Business Post closed lower as the market’s attention has turned to inflation reports out of the US.

High inflation has previously put a dagger to hopes of rate cuts in the US, which can have the effect of a handbrake on risk assets such as crypto.

Dogecoin (DOGE) lost 3.7 per cent to sell at $0.1455, Binance Coin (BNB) shed 3.5 per cent to trade at $570.10, Solana (SOL) shed 3.3 per cent to close at $143.85, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 2.1 per cent to $0.4281, Litecoin (LTC) fell by 1.9 per cent to $78.85, Ethereum (ETH) retreated by 1.3 per cent to $2,903.54, Ripple (XRP) slumped by 1.3 per cent to $0.5066, and Bitcoin (BTC) slid by 1.2 per cent to $61,884.52, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.