Naira Falls at P2P, Gains at I&E, Stable at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira moved in different directions against the US Dollar at the various segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday, August 17 as the nation struggles to find a solution to the lingering forex crisis putting the indigenous currency under pressure.

At the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) market segment, the Nigerian currency depreciated by N2 or 0.29 per cent against the greenback at the midweek session to N692/$1 from the previous day’s N690/$1.

However, at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, the local currency appreciated by N1.29 or 0.3 per cent to settle at N429.38/$1 compared with Tuesday’s value of N430.67/$1 and in the parallel market, the domestic currency maintained stability against the greenback at N680/$1 yesterday.

Also, in the interbank segment of the market, the Naira gained N1.72 against the Pound Sterling to sell for N508.24/£1 versus the N498.66/£1 it sold in the previous session and against the Euro, the local currency was strengthened by N11.06 to close at N420.83/€1 in contrast to Tuesday’s rate of N431.89/€1.

Business Post observed that at the official FX window, the value of transactions at the midweek significantly increased by 139.00 per cent or $70.06 million to $120.46 million from the preceding day’s $50.40 million.

As for the digital currency market, the bears had a grip of the space as fears of a global recession continued to hound the market, driving away investors who weigh the options of the riskier assets.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) recorded the heaviest loss of 7.6 per cent to sell at $0.00001482, Solana (SOL) depreciated by 6.8 per cent to $40.87, Dogecoin (DOGE) saw a 4.9 per cent slump to trade at $0.0808, and Cardano (ADA) dropped 4.8 per cent to trade at $0.5377.

Also, Litecoin (LTC) went south by 3.6 per cent to trade at $60.81, Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 3.5 per cent slide to sell at $306.67, Ethereum (ETH) depreciated by 2.3 per cent to settle at $1,851.39, Bitcoin dropped 2.2 per cent to trade at $23,463.36 and Ripple (XRP) recorded a 1.9 per cent fall to trade at $0.3768.

But the US Dollar Tether (USDT) remained unchanged at $1.00.