Naira Falls to N1,503.38/$1 at NAFEM as Volatility Returns to FX Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Naira closed the midweek session with a loss against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Wednesday, February 14.

Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange indicated that its value fell by N4.31 or 0.3 per cent against the Dollar to quote at N1,503.38/$1 in the spot market compared with the previous day’s value of N1,499.07/$1.

However, the local currency recovered N6.77 against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday to srengthen its value to N1,905.76/£1 from N1,912.53/£1 and against the Euro, it chalked up N6.76 to trade at N1,625.53/€1, in contrast to the N1,632.29/€1 it was sold a day earlier.

It was observed that foreign exchange (FX) supply to the market decreased on Wednesday after news emerged that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may have resumed the sale of forex for the first time in five months as part of efforts to give stability to the Naira.

The value of FX transactions in the midweek depreciated by 56.6 per cent or $153.63 million to $117.87 million from the $271.50 million recorded in the preceding day.

Meanwhile, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the market, the Naira showed no signs of regaining weight as it further lost N30 against the greenback during the session to close at N1,566/$1 versus Tuesday’s closing rate of N1,536/$1.

Equally, the value of the domestic currency declined against its American counterpart yesterday by N32 to sell for N1,564/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s exchange rate of N1,532/$1.

In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) surged to another more than two-year high, crossing the $52,000 mark on Wednesday, pushing its market cap back over $1 trillion as the growing success of US spot bitcoin ETFs turned investor sentiment more positive. The flagship crypto was up by 5.2 per cent trade at $52,166.92.

Dogecoin (DOGE) went up by 7.4 per cent to $0.0870, Cardano (ADA) grew by 6.8 per cent to $0.5812, Ethereum (ETH) appreciated by 6.1 per cent to $2,794.21, Binance Coin (BNB) expanded by 5.5 per cent to $343.50, Solana (SOL) jumped by 4.8 per cent to $116.86, Ripple (XRP) strengthened by 3.9 per cent to $0.5443, and Litecoin (LTC) was fortified by 1.9 per cent to $70.29, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.