Naira Falls to N878.57/$1 at Official FX Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira slid against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday, January 16.

The local currency weakened by 4.7 per cent or N39.62 against the greenback to trade at N878.57/$1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N838.95/$1, according to data obtained from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.

In the same pattern, the domestic currency depreciated against the Pound Sterling in the spot market yesterday by N6.48 to close at N1,080.11/£1 compared with Monday’s closing price of N1,086.59/£1 and against the Euro, it depreciated by N5.72 to sell at N929.07/€1 versus the previous session’s N934.79/€1.

A recent boost to the foreign exchange (FX) market translated to a rise in turnover in the official market on Tuesday, with $147.81 million worth of forex traded compared with the $26.37 million transacted in the previous day, representing a rise by $121.44 million or 460.5 per cent.

In the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window, the Naira lost N19 against the US Dollar during the trading session to finish at N1,303/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s N1,284/$1.

In the parallel market, the Nigerian currency fell against the Dollar yesterday by N20 to sell for N1,300/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N1,280/$1.

A look at the digital currency market showed that the majority of the benchmarked tokens were in the negative territory as the appetite of investors appeared to be waning.

Analysts say investors are assessing the future of the market before making any further bets. This is coming as regulatory concerns remain although the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs).

Bitcoin ETFs are traditional financial vehicles that may give retail and institutional investors alike easier exposure to Bitcoin’s price.

Litecoin (LTC) dropped 2.2 per cent to trade at $69.90, Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 1.7 per cent to $0.5761, Cardano (ADA) fell by 1.2 per cent to $0.5326, and Solana (SOL) recorded a 0.8 per cent slump to close at $95.70.

Further, Dogecoin (DOGE) weakened by 0.6 per cent to $36.07, US Dollar Tether (USDT) shed 0.09 per cent to settle at $0.999, and Binance Coin (BNB) went south by 0.02 per cent to $314.86.

However, BTC gained 0.2 per cent to quote at $42,748.09, and Ethereum (ETH) rose by 0.6 per cent to $2,528.05, while the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00.