Naira Crashes to N404.67/$1 at I&E, Gains at Black Market

By Ahmed Rahma, Adedapo Adesanya

The trading week ended sadly for the local currency against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market on Friday, February 12.

This followed the pressure mounted on the Nigerian legal tender yesterday, causing the domestic currency to crash by N4.67 or 1.17 per cent to quote at N404.67/$1 in contrast to N400/$1 it settled the previous day.

On the last trading day of the week, transactions worth $96.50 million were recorded as against the $79.07 million of the preceding session, signifying an increase by $17.43 million or 22.04 per cent.

But at the unregulated segment of the FX market, the Naira came off stronger against the Dollar, appreciating by N2 to trade at N473/$1 compared to N475/$1 of the previous day.

At the same black market, Nigerian currency closed flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro to settle at N650/£1 and N570/€1 respectively.

At the interbank, the value of the Naira to the greenback remained unchanged yesterday at N379/$1, while at the Bureaux De Change (BDC) segment, the Nigerian currency closed flat against the American currency at N395/$1.

Meanwhile, at the cryptocurrency market, the environment maintained its bull run as all the seven key tokens tracked by Business Post appreciated on Friday.

The Bitcoin (BTC) gained 7.4 per cent to trade at N22,219,096.61, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 3.1 per cent to sell at N833,999, Litecoin (LTC) appreciated by 5.4 per cent to trade at N92,350.00, while the Ripple (XRP) jumped by 14.2 per cent to N275.20.

Also, Tron (TRX) grew by 5.4 per cent to sell at N25.89, Dash (DASH) grew by 5.6 per cent to sell at N76,000.02, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) added 0.5 per cent to its value to finish at N455.57.