Naira Falls to N465/$1 at Black Market, Gains 0.09% at I&E

By Adedapo Adesanya

After maintaining stability for some days, the Naira finally recorded a movement against the United States Dollar on Wednesday at the black market.

However, this movement was a wrong one as it depreciated by N2 or 0.43 per cent to settle at N465/$1 in contrast to N463/$1 it closed at the previous session.

At the same segment of the foreign exchange market yesterday, the domestic currency depreciated against the Pound by N4 to quote at N600/£1 in contrast to N596/£1 of Tuesday but remained unchanged against the Euro at N542/€1.

Furthermore, the Naira traded flat against the Canadian Dollar at the parallel market at N327, but lost N2 against the South African Rand to close at N30 versus N28 of the previous day.

The local currency also depreciated against the UAE’s Dirham on Wednesday by N5 to sell for N130 in contrast to Tuesday’s rate of N125 and lost N5 against the Ghanaian Cedi to finish at N82 compared with N75 it was traded a day earlier.

But things were different at the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window on Wednesday as data obtained by Business Post from the FMDQ Securities Exchange indicated that the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar was in favour of the former, which appreciated by 0.09 per cent or 33 kobo to settle at N385.67/$1 as against the preceding day’s N386/$1.

The minimal growth recorded by the Nigerian currency at the market segment during the midweek trading session was boosted by the 47.3 per cent or $65.59 million reduction in the demand for forex by customers. As the FMDQ showed, transactions worth $73.01 million were executed compared with the $138.60 million transacted on Tuesday.

At the interbank window of the market, the official exchange rate of the Naira/Dollar remained at N379/$1 at the close of business on Wednesday.

At the Bureaux De Change (BDC) segment, the value of the Naira to the American Dollar remained flat at N386/$1, according to data from the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON).

A look at the digital money sector showed that yesterday, the value of the Bitcoin (BTC) went down by 2.8 per cent to sell at N6,120,299.99, according to Quidax.

Ethereum (ETH) lost 3.9 per cent to sell for N181,701.99, Ripple (RPX) depreciated by 2.2 per cent to trade for N114.01, Dash (DASH) went down by 4.3 per cent to trade at N31,669.99, while Litecoin (LTC) fell by 4.8 per cent to settle at N25,906.05.

However, Tether (USDT) appreciated yesterday by 1.5 per cent to trade at N471.96 while Tron (TRX) went up 0.6 per cent to close at N12.56.