Naira Depreciates at Peer-to-Peer, Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The value of the Naira depreciated against the US Dollar at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and parallel market wings of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Friday, January 6 but closed flat at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the FX market.

It was observed that rising demand for foreign currencies in the forex market contributed to the downfall of the local currency yesterday in the black market as it lost N2 at the close of transactions to quote at N742/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s value of N740/$1.

Also, in the P2P fx segment, the value of the domestic currency dropped N2 against the greenback on Friday to N770/$1 compared to Thursday’s exchange rate of N768/$1.

At the spot market, the exchange rate of the Nigerian currency remained unchanged against the American currency at N461.50/$1.

In the interbank segment of the market, the Naira also traded flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro on Friday at N541.56 and N478.08, respectively.

In the cryptocurrency market, the bulls were dominant as sentiments improved, with Cardano (ADA) appreciating by 1.7 per cent to trade at $0.2743.

Litecoin (LTC) went up by 1.5 per cent to quote at $75.71, Ethereum (ETH) saw its value go up by 1.1 per cent to sell at $1,226.97, Binance Coin (BNB) added 0.6 per cent to settle at $259.15, and Bitcoin (BTC) made a 0.4 per cent gain to close at $16,918.63.

On the flip side, Solana (SOL) lost 2.4 per cent to sell at $13.25, Dogecoin (DOGE) made a 0.6 per cent depreciation to trade at $0.0722, and Ripple (XRP) recorded a 0.2 per cent loss to finish at $0.3413.

Meanwhile, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded at flat $1.00 each.