Naira Down to N1,667/$1 at NAFEM, N1,695/$1 at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira continued its free-fall against the United States Dollar in the different segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday.

In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) at midweek, the domestic currency weakened against the greenback by 0.54 per cent or N8.94 to sell at N1,667.42/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,658.48/$1 amid the raising of the interest rate by 0.50 per cent to 27.25 per cent.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised its Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 50 basis points on Tuesday, bringing the benchmark interest rate to 27.25 per cent. This marks the fifth consecutive rate hike this year. The development shocked the market which was expecting some succour.

The apex bank said the move aims to further curb inflationary pressures, despite signs of moderating inflation.

This has continued to beat down the value of the local currency in the forex market and it further weakened it yesterday in the spot market against the Pound Sterling by N91.82 to sell at N2,223.68/£1 versus the preceding session’s N2,131.86/£1.

In the same vein, the Naira lost N4.79 against the Euro in the official market during the trading day to quote at N1,830.11/€1 versus the preceding rate of N1,778.07/€1.

This happened as the value of FX transactions yesterday went down by 39.6 per cent or $65.89 million to $100.47 million from $166.36 million.

At the black market, the Nigerian Naira depreciated against the US Dollar during the session by N25 to trade at N1,695/$1 compared with the N1,670/$1 it was exchanged a day earlier.

In the cryptocurrency market, Binance Coin (BNB) crumbled by 1.8 per cent to close at $590.81, Bitcoin (BTC) depreciated by 0.8 per cent to trade at $63,643.58, and Ripple (XRP) recorded a 0.7 per cent decline to settle at $0.5844, Ethereum (ETH) declined by 0.5 per cent to $2,613.11, and Solana (SOL) slumped by 0.2 per cent to sell at $150.14.

Conversely, Litecoin (LTC) went up by 1.1 per cent to $67.15, Cardano (ADA) rose by 0.6 per cent to $0.3879, and Dogecoin (DOGE) gained 0.3 per cent to sell at $0.11, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 apiece.