By Adedapo Adesanya
Despite the unconventional approaches to ease the free fall of the Naira, its value weakened against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday, February 22 by 1.9 per cent or N28.73 to close at N1,571.31/$1 compared with the N1,542.58/$1 it was transacted in the midweek session.
The domestic currency suffered the loss despite the supply of foreign exchange (FX) improving by 11.7 per cent or $20.11 million to $192.25 million from Wednesday’s $172.14 million.
However, the local currency appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N142.83 to settle at N1,880.81/£1 compared with the previous day’s N2,023.64/£1 and on the Euro, it improved its value by N77.24 to sell at N1,609.89/€1 versus the previous closing rate of N1,729.36/€1.
Also, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) section of the forex market, the Nigerian currency gained N23 against the greenback during the session to trade at N1,737/$1 in contrast to the N1,760/$1 it was quoted a day earlier.
But in the parallel market, the Naira depreciated against the Dollar yesterday by N10 to quote at N1,895/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s value of N1,885/$1.
Earlier this week, the Nigerian government formed a joint task force to combat forex speculation and tackle the issues affecting the country’s economic stability. This task force has since gone after operations of street traders in many Nigerian cities, including Lagos, Ibadan, and Abuja, among others.
Digital FX traders also not exempted as telecommunications companies and other internet service providers frustrated access to cryptocurrency trading platforms like Binance, OctaFX, and others.
Meanwhile, in the cryptocurrency market, Binance-adjacent cryptocurrency, Binance Coin, (BNB), climbed to its highest level since the crash of FTX. This signalled eased worries about the crypto exchange’s legal troubles and was buoyed by an upcoming airdrop mobilizing BNB users.
BNB, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, hit $382 during the day for the first time since November 2022, gaining 2.5 per cent to trade at $382.73 followed by Ethereum (ETH) which rose by 1.9 per cent to sell at $2,975.71.
Dogecoin (DOGE) recorded a 0.9 per cent appreciation to settle at $0.0849, Litecoin (LTC) went up by 0.8 per cent to $69.18, Bitcoin (BTC) jumped by 0.4 per cent to $51,525.62, and Cardano (ADA) grew by 0.3 per cent to $0.5935.
However, Solana (SOL) went down by 1.5 per cent to $103.37, Ripple (XRP) crumbled by 0.06 per cent to $0.5457, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) dropped 0.02 per cent to sell at $0.9998, while the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00.
