Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira further depreciated on the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E), the parallel market, and the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segments of the foreign exchange market on Tuesday, August 23, amid renewed headwinds as hopes that came from recent buffers provided to soothe the market faded.
Recall that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited last Wednesday announced that it had secured a $3 billion emergency loan from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to stabilise the country’s FX market.
While the market had strengthened following the news, it appeared to be short-term support as the local currency has fallen subsequently on the Dollar across tracked segments.
The local currency fell by 1.24 per cent or N9.40 against the greenback in the official market during the session to settle at N770.72/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s N761.32/$1.
The Naira was pressured by a significant rise in the demand for forex at the spot market, with the FX turnover soaring by 72.7 per cent or $47.24 million to $112.22 million from the $64.98 million reported a day earlier.
Equally, in the P2P window, the domestic currency depreciated against the Dollar yesterday by N25 to sell at N905/$1 versus Monday’s closing value of N880/$1.
Also, the Naira had a bad day in the black market as it lost N35 on the US Dollar to settle at N890/$1 compared with the previous day’s closing rate of N855/$1.
However, the Nigerian currency appreciated against the British Pound Sterling at the spot market on Tuesday by N7.02 to close at N962.81/£1 versus N969.83/£1 and gained N9.04 against the Euro to sell at N820.02/€1, in contrast to the preceding session’s N829.06/€1.
As for the digital currency market, the coins traded mixed on Tuesday, with Litecoin (LTC) going down by 2.9 per cent to $64.92, as Solana (SOL) lost 2.5 per cent to sell at $20.63, Ethereum (ETH) declined by 1.7 per cent to $1,635.46, and Cardano (ADA) slipped by 1.1 per cent to trade at $0.2596.
Conversely, Binance Coin (BNB) jumped by 1.8 per cent to $213.98, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 0.1 per cent to trade at $0.0628, Bitcoin (BTC) improved by 0.02 per cent to $26,060.37, and Ripple (XRP) increased by 0.01 per cent to $0.5201, while Binance USD (BUSD) remained flat at $1.00.
