Naira Crumbles to N1,500/$1 at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated further against the United States Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday amid the foreign exchange (FX) crisis in the country.

The Nigerian currency lost 0.71 per cent or N10.59 against the US Dollar in the official market to trade at N1,500.79/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,490.20/$1.

Also, the domestic currency lost against the British Pound Sterling in the official FX market by N19.34 yesterday to sell for N1,890.86/£1 compared with Monday’s closing price of N1,871.52/£1 and shed N15.81 against the Euro to sell for N1,598.78/€1 versus the N1,582.97/€1 it was exchanged a day earlier.

The value of forex trades in the spot market, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, went down by 10 per cent or $15.25 million to $136.75 million from the $152.00 million recorded in the preceding trading session.

However, the Naira gained N5 against the American currency in the black market during the session to trade at N1,500/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s value of N1,505/$1.

The local currency is weakening even as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr Yemi Cardoso, said the worst is over for the Naira’s fluctuations at the FX market as he employed an optimistic tone regarding the domestic currency’s stability in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

He expressed satisfaction with the progress made in curbing volatility and suggested the worst may be over for the Nigerian currency.

“We do believe that we have more or less seen the worst in terms of volatility,” Mr Cardoso stated.

In the cryptocurrency market, benchmarked tokens recorded gains as the meme coin sector maintained its momentum with traders prioritising short-term gains, with Dogecoin (DOGE) closing 2.5 per cent higher to $0.1225.

In addition, Litecoin (LTC) rose by 1.1 per cent to sell at $71.11, Solana (SOL) jumped by 1.0 per cent to trade at $137.13, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 0.9 per cent to $576.92, Bitcoin (BTC) also recorded a 0.9 per cent boost to quote at $61,628.91, Ethereum (ETH) appreciated by 0.6 per cent to $3,392.63 and Cardano (ADA) added 0.3 per cent to settle at $0.3889.

But Ripple (XRP) went down by 0.5 per cent to trade at $0.4773, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00, respectively.