Naira Depreciates at P2P, I&E, Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated against the Dollar at the different segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on the first trading session after the Christmas break on Wednesday, December 28.

The forex market came under pressure as customers were looking for Dollars to complete their business transactions and this weakened the value of the domestic currency at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P), the black market and the Investors and Exporters (I&E) windows of the forex market.

In the P2P market, the local currency fell by N22 to sell at N778/$1 compared to the preceding day’s value of N756/$1, and in the unauthorised window, the Naira lost N1 to trade at N742/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s rate of N741/$1.

At the official market, the Naira fell against the greenback by N4.83 or 1.06 per cent to trade at N461.33/$1 compared with the previous session’s N456.50/$1.

Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the value of forex transactions recorded yesterday stood at $196.06 million, in contrast to the preceding session’s $155.86 million, representing an increase of 25.8 per cent or $40.2 million.

However, in the interbank segment, the Naira appreciated against the British Pound Sterling by 1 Kobo to trade at N541.24/£1 versus N541.25/£1, and against the Euro, it depreciated by N2.76 to close at N454.49/€1 compared with the previous session’s N474.40/€1.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market treaded downward on Wednesday, with Ripple (XRP) declining by 2.9 per cent to trade at $0.3471, and Solana (SOL) shedding 2.8 per cent to sell at $9.67.

Cardano (ADA) lost 2.4 per cent to trade at $0.2457, Litecoin (LTC) went down by 1.8 per cent to quote at $66.26, Bitcoin (BTC) slumped 0.3 per cent to sell at $16,574.37, and the United States Tether (USDT) lost 0.02 per cent to settle at $0.9997.

But Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 0.7 per cent to sell at $244.75, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 0.3 per cent to trade at $0.0706, and Ethereum (ETH) increased its value by 0.1 per cent to sell at $1,194.11, while Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat at $1.00.