Naira Depreciates to N1,457/$1 at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated against the United States Dollar by N2.34 or 0.16 per cent to N1,457.51/$1 on Monday, October 13 from the previous day’s N1,455.17/$1 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).

Equally, the Nigerian Naira depleted against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N10.83 to sell for N1,943.01/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,932.18/£1, and lost N3.00 against the Euro to close at N1,686.19/€1 versus the N1,683.19/€1 it was traded last Friday.

In the black market, the domestic currency traded flat against the greenback yesterday at N1,480/$1 at GTBank, the local currency improved its value against the Dollar by N8 to quote at N1,470/$1 compared with the previous session’s N1,478/$1.

The direction of the Naira across the segment was influenced disparity in the volume of US Dollars available at the supply side. Despite this, the Naira continues to trade at expected range.

Buoyant external reserves which have continued to build up, rising steadily to $42.59 billion as of last week has been supported by improved oil earnings, diaspora remittances, and foreign portfolio inflows, reinforcing confidence in the foreign exchange market.

This steady rise gives the CBN more room to manage short-term pressures and supports expectations of Naira stability in the near term. However, crude oil earnings may be impacted by reduced geopolitical risks following ease in tension between Israel and Hamas as well as US and China.

As for the cryptocurrency market, profit-taking continued from last week’s historic crash, triggered by renewed enmity between the US and China. Despite easing to the tensions, a sharp selloff continued with investors and traders bracing for more volatility across major cryptocurrencies.

There was almost $20 billion in liquidations over the weekend across leveraged positions as panic selling and low liquidity triggered sharp swings after President Donald Trump announced late on Friday a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese import and threatened export controls on critical software.

Binance Coin (BNB) fell by 5.1 per cent to $1,242.04, Bitcoin (BTC) lost 1.8 per cent to sell at $112,682.67, Dogecoin (DOGE) depleted by 1.6 per cent to $0.2040, Ethereum (ETH) declined by 1.4 per cent to $4,081.98, Ripple (XRP) shrank by 1.1 per cent to $2.51, Litecoin (LTC) slumped by 0.7 per cent to $95.94 and Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 0.1 per cent to $0.6992.

However, Solana (SOL) appreciated by 3.3 per cent to $200.52, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained flat at $1.00 each.