Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira closed mixed at the foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday, depreciating against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segments and appreciating in the parallel market amid a new leadership at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
On Friday, the CBN announced the resumption of Mr Olayemi Cardoso as the next head of the apex bank, in an acting capacity pending his confirmation by the Nigerian Senate.
He is taking over the role amid a worrying FX market, high inflation, and increased call to halt interest rate hikes which currently stand at 18.75 per cent.
This development did nothing to abate the pressure in the official market as the local currency lost N9.76 or 1.32 per cent against the greenback to close at N747.76/$1 versus the previous day’s N738.00/$1.
The supply of forex into the spot market reduced yesterday by 29.0 per cent or $62.93 million to $153.75 million from $216.68 million, according to data supplied by FMDQ Securities Exchange.
In the P2P market, the domestic currency fell against the American currency during the session by N1 to quote at N993/$1 compared with the preceding session’s value of N992/$1.
However, the Nigerian currency gained N5 against its United States counterpart in the black market to finish at N990/$1, in contrast to Thursday’s exchange rate of N995/$1.
Also, the Naira appreciated against the British Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N23.70 to close at N929.85/£1 versus Thursday’s N953.55/£1 but depreciated against the Euro by N20.14 to settle at N807.45/€1 compared with the previous day’s N787.31/€1.
As for the digital currency market, tokens witnessed considerable drops, which coincided with a decline on Thursday in global equity markets as investors digested hawkish US Federal Reserve remarks on monetary policy.
Bitcoin (BTC) slumped by 0.4 per cent to sell at $26,548.28, Ethereum (ETH) fell by 0.2 per cent to $1,592.16, Solana (SOL) went down by 1.4 per cent to $19.43, Binance Coin (BNB) depreciated by 0.5 per cent to $210.54, Cardano (ADA) slid by 0.4 per cent to trade at $0.2453, Litecoin (LTC) crumbled by 0.3 per cent to $64.82, and Ripple (XRP) cracked by 0.2 per cent to $0.5122.
But Dogecoin (DOGE) swung north by 0.1 per cent to trade at $0.0616, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) remained unchanged at $1.00, respectively.
