Naira Falls to N1,154/$1 at NAFEM, N1,120 at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira plunged against the US Dollar by N70 in the parallel market segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Thursday to settle at N1,120/$1, in contrast to Wednesday’s closing price of N1,050/$1.

Similarly, it had a bad day in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), which is the official market, as it slumped against the greenback by 7.6 per cent or N7.78 to close at N1,154.08/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N1,072.74/$1.

However, the Nigerian currency close flat against the British Pound Sterling and the Euro in the spot market yesterday at N1,147.53/£1 and N1,220.17/€1, respectively.

Recently, the local currency strengthened towards the N1,000 per Dollar mark following a string of policies instituted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and despite reassurance from the apex bank and fiscal authorities that it would intensify efforts, the rate at the official market tumbled.

However, volatility returned to the ecosystem on Thursday as the value of forex turnover declined by $3.50 million or 1.85 per cent to $185.62 million from the $189.12 million recorded a day earlier.

In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) made a 1.3 per cent rise ahead of its halving, which will take off a considerable number of the coins off the market.

The price of the coin is likely to weaken after the reward halving, a quadrennial event that slows the rate of growth in bitcoin supply and looks set to occur around April 19-20, Wall Street giant JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report on Wednesday.

Solana (SOL) gained 2.9 per cent during the session to sell at $138.35.

However, Ripple (XRP) slumped by 1.8 per cent to $0.488, Cardano (ADA) slid by 1.6 per cent to $0.4431, Litecoin (LTC) declined by 1.1 per cent to $79.13, Binance Coin (BNB) lost 0.8 per cent to close at $543.70, Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 0.3 per cent to $0.1477, and Ethereum (ETH) depreciated by 0.1 per cent to $3,001.79, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 apiece.