Naira Depletes at I&E, Strengthens at P2P, Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira further appreciated against the Dollar in the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) and the parallel market arms of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday, March 10.

The Nigerian currency was strengthened against the US currency by N2 in the peer-to-peer window yesterday to settle at N752/$1, in contrast to N754/$1 of the preceding session.

In the same vein, the domestic currency gained N1 on the greenback at the black market during the session to sell for N744/$1 compared with Thursday’s exchange rate of N745/$1.

However, in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, it was a different outcome as the Naira lost 50 Kobo or 0.11 per cent against the American Dollar on Friday to settle at N461.50/$1 versus the previous day’s value of N461.00/$1, according to data obtained from FMDQ Securities Exchange.

The local currency weakened yesterday despite the value of forex transactions declining by 0.3 per cent or $0.27 million to $82.56 million from the $82.83 million reported a day earlier.

In the interbank window, the Naira was flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro on Friday at N548.01/£1 and N487.11/€1, respectively.

As for the cryptocurrency market, it was quite bullish yesterday as most of the tokens tracked by Business Post were in the green territory.

This happened as markets continued to react to the liquidation of Silvergate Bank, coming ahead of a pivotal US nonfarm payrolls report, which could decide how aggressively the Federal Reserve acts in its upcoming meeting.

Solana (SOL) jumped by 5.5 per cent to trade at $17.50, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 2.6 per cent to $1,438.08, Cardano (ADA) expanded by 2.4 per cent to $0.3115, and Binance Coin (BNB) increased by 2.2 per cent to $275.27.

In addition, Bitcoin (BTC) rose by 1.8 per cent to $20,232.47, Dogecoin (DOGE) went northwards by 0.7 per cent to sell at $0.0652, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) increased by 0.5 per cent jump to quote at $1.01.

On the flip side, Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 5.7 per cent to $67.84, Ripple (XRP) dropped 0.5 per cent to trade at $0.3654, and Binance USD (BUSD) lost 0.2 per cent to trade at $0.998.