Naira Depreciates at Official Market to N1,169/$1

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated against the US Dollar on Friday in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) by 1.4 per cent or N15.91 to trade at N1,169.99/$1 compared with the previous day’s rate of N1.154.08/$1.

The pressure was on the domestic currency during the trading session amid the foreign exchange (FX) supply shortage, as data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange indicated that the forex turnover depleted by $94.94 million or 53.3 per cent to $86.68 million from the $185.62 million recorded a day earlier.

It was observed that the Nigerian Naira also suffered a loss against the Pound Sterling in the spot market yesterday by N298.66 to wrap the session at N1,446.19/£1 compared with the previous day’s value of N1,147.53/£1 and against the Euro, it weakened by N17.94 to N1,238.11/€1 from the N1,220.17/€1 it was traded on Thursday.

Also, in the parallel market, the local currency lost N30 against the Dollar during the session to quote at N1,150/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s exchange rate of N1,120/$1.

In the cryptocurrency market, benchmarked tokens recorded appreciation after Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, completed its “halving,” a phenomenon that happens roughly every four years, according to CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency data and analysis company. BTC recorded a 3.5 per cent gain to sell at $64,189.33.

In addition, Cardano (ADA) rose by 10.6 per cent to trade at $0.4895, Dogecoin (DOGE) recorded a value appreciation of 6.1 per cent to settle at $0.1566, Ripple (XRP) gained 5.2 per cent to quote at $0.5127, and Litecoin (LTC) recorded a 4.3 per cent rise to sell at $82.35.

Further, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 3.4 per cent to finish at $562.34, joined by Solana (SOL) which also jumped by 3.4 per cent to close at $143.80, and Ethereum (ETH) appreciated by 2.2 per cent to settle at $3,064.66, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.