By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira depreciated against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) and the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) windows of the foreign exchange window on Monday, October 16 amid continued worrying supply woes after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) allowed more players to access FX at the official market.
Last week, the CBN Governor, Mr Yemi Cardoso, in a bid to ease the pressure on the Naira in the forex market, lifted the restrictions on 43 items.
However, market analysts have said this only brings more players into the market and without any improvement in the supply side of the curve, more pressure will be on the local currency.
At the spot market yesterday, the domestic currency fell by 1.82 per cent or N13.94 against the greenback to close at N778.80/$1 compared with last Friday’s value of N764.86/$1.
Business Post reports that the supply of forex into the system remained low at $43.09 million, 18.7 per cent lower than the preceding session’s $53.02 million.
Also, in the P2P section, the Nigerian currency weakened against its American counterpart by N13 to sell at N1,048/$1 versus the previous trading session’s N1,035/$1.
But in the parallel market window, the Naira appreciated against the US Dollar on Monday by N3 to quote at N1,040/$1, in contrast to last Friday’s value of N1,043/$1.
The Nigerian Naira maintained stability against the Pound Sterling and the Euro in the official market during the session at N931.14/£1 and N805.414/€1, respectively.
As for the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) traded above $28,000, gaining 0.8 per cent to finish at $28,155.99 after CoinTelegraph reported that the Blackrock Bitcoin ETF had been approved by the SEC. It was later confirmed to be false.
During the trading day, Solana (SOL) gained 5.4 per cent to sell at $23.90, and Litecoin (LTC) went up by 0.6 per cent to trade at $63.09.
However, Cardano (ADA) dropped 0.9 per cent to trade at $0.25, Ripple (XRP) slipped by 0.4 per cent to $0.4911, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 0.3 per cent to $0.0599, Binance Coin (BNB) lost 0.2 per cent to quote at $212.88, and Ethereum (ETH) slumped by 0.1 per cent to $1,585.73, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.
Modupe Gbadeyanka