Naira Depreciates at Official Market, Gains at Black Market, P2P

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated against the American Dollar by 4.1 per cent or N30.26 at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange market on Tuesday, August 15, amid a continued liquidity crisis.

Business Post reports that the Naira was transacted against the greenback at N774.77/$1, in contrast to the N744.51/$1 it was traded on Monday.

This came as the daily forex turnover for yesterday closed at $95.79 million, 40.2 per cent or $64.43 million lower than the $160.22 million achieved a day earlier.

In the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) window, the Nigerian currency appreciated against the US Dollar during the session by N19 to sell at N924/$1 compared with the previous day’s N943/$1.

Similarly, the domestic currency gained N5 against the Dollar in the parallel market yesterday to trade at N940/$1 compared with the preceding day’s rate of N945/$1.

This is coming as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) plans to inject more FX into the market to stabilise the exchange rate. A move that will shock speculators, as warned by the acting governor of the apex bank, Mr Folashodun Shonubi.

In the official market, the Naira depreciated against the Pound Sterling on Tuesday by N51.22 to quote at N1,000.04/£1 versus Monday’s rate of N948.82/£1 and against the Euro, it lost N42.07 to sell at N859.06/€1, in contrast to the previous trading session’s N816.99/€1.

A look at the cryptocurrency market showed that an intense selloff on Tuesday weakened most digital coins, with Bitcoin (BTC) down by 0.6 per cent to $29,141.41.

Ethereum (ETH) fell by 0.9 per cent to $1,822.81, Solana (SOL) went down by 6.0 per cent to $23.44, Dogecoin (DOGE) shed 5.0 per cent to trade at $0.0706, and Ripple (XRP) dropped 4.1 per cent to settle at $0.6024.

Further, Litecoin (LTC) decreased by 3.9 per cent to finish at $78.50, Cardano (ADA) slumped by 3.7 per cent to $0.2788, and Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 1.9 per cent loss to close at $234.49, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.