Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira depreciated against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) and the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) windows of the foreign exchange market on Wednesday, October 4 amid continued worrying supply woes and no clear direction from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Since a week after the new CBN Governor, Mr Yemi Cardoso, assumed office, there has been no policy direction from the apex bank and the market continues to react to one of the core issues facing the bank, FX supply.
Reactions from the I&E segment of the market showed a 1.48 per cent or N11.02 depreciation in the value of the Naira against the greenback, closing at N756.21/$1 versus the preceding day’s N745.19/$1.
The local currency weakened during the session amid a rise in the demand for forex by 18 per cent or $14.58 million to $95.70 million from the $81.12 million achieved at the Tuesday session.
In the P2P section, the Nigerian currency declined against the American currency yesterday by N2 to sell at N1,005/$1 versus the previous day’s N1,003/$1.
However, the local currency appreciated against the US Dollar in the parallel market during the midweek session by N1 to quote at N1,001/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s exchange rate of N1,002/$1.
In the official market, the value of the Naira dropped against the Pound Sterling by N22.65 to close at N927.40/£1 versus N904.75/£1 and against the Euro, it shrank by N17.95 to sell at N801.81/€1 compared with Tuesday’s rate of N783.86/€1.
In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) traded above $27,600 as analysts noted that the US government will have to print money to save its economy, a condition where long-term interest rates rise more quickly than short-term rates and will cause firms to collapse. Some investors believe that this could trigger a cryptocurrency bull market. BTC jumped by 0.9 per cent on Wednesday to sell at $27,636.37.
Solana (SOL) rose by 1.0 per cent to sell at $23.22, Cardano (ADA) increased by 0.9 per cent to $0.2587, Binance Coin (BNB) gained 0.6 per cent to sell for $212.88, Litecoin (LTC) went up by 0.4 per cent to $64.65, and Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 0.2 per cent to $0.0611.
However, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 0.8 per cent slide to trade at $0.5267, and Ethereum (ETH) went down by 0.1 per cent to sell at $1,639.44, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat at $1.00 each.
