Naira Falls to N1,672/$1 Ahead of CBN FX Matching System Launch

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated against the US Dollar by 1.7 per cent or N27.83 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, November 29 as supply weakened ahead of the official unveiling of the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) next week.

The exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar in the official market ended yesterday at N1,672.69/$1, in contrast to the N1,644.86/$1 it closed on Thursday.

Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the value of forex transactions went down by 56.7 per cent or $306.24 million to $254.10 million from the $560.34 million achieved the previous day.

However, the local currency appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the spot market during the trading session by N13.38 to settle at N2,111.48/£1 compared with the preceding day’s N2,124.86/£1 and against the Euro, it gained N15.61 to finish at N1,757.57/€1 versus Thursday’s closing price of N1,773.18/€1.

The CBN EFEMS initiative designed to ensure transparent, fair, and efficient FX trading, minimise counterparty risks, and enforce compliance with CBN regulations will go live on Monday, December 2.

The apex bank has pegged the minimum tradable amount at $100,000, with incremental clip sizes of $50,000 to promote transparency and efficiency in the FX market.

In the parallel market, the Nigerian currency appreciated against the US Dollar yesterday by N15 to settle at N1,735/$1 compared with Thursday’s closing price of N1,750/$1.

In the cryptocurrency market, Ripple (XRP) surged by 18.9 per cent the past 24 hours to finish at $1.92, extending a month-long run that has seen the price rise 200 per cent to make the token the best-performing major token alongside Dogecoin (DOGE).

Further, Litecoin (LTC) added 6.6 per cent to close at $101.96, Cardano (ADA) rose by 5.9 per cent to $1.13, Dogecoin (DOGE) grew by 5.4 per cent to $0.4265, Ethereum (ETH) jumped by 4.2 per cent to sell at $3,697.06, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 3.7 per cent to trade at $674.85, Solana (SOL) gained 1.9 per cent to settle at $244.08, and Bitcoin (BTC) expanded by 0.9 per cent to $96,811.57, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) fell by 0.03 per cent to $0.9999, and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00.