Naira Firms to N740/$1 at I&E, N841/$1 at P2P After FX Supply Boost

By Adedapo Adesanya 

The Naira appreciated further at the black market, the Investors and Exporters (I&E) and the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segments of the foreign exchange market on Thursday, August 17, as the market received a major FX supply boost of about $3 billion emergency loan.

Recall that on Wednesday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited said it has signed a Commitment Letter and Term Sheet with Afreximbank for an emergency $3 billion crude oil repayment loan.

This has injected some hope into the market as the local currency gained N19.19 or 2.5 per cent against the greenback at the official market to end the session at N740.67/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N759.86/$1.

The Naira gained weight yesterday as liquidity improved, with the value of forex trades rising by 114.1 per cent or $69.78 million to $130.92 million from Wednesday’s $61.14 million.

At the P2P window, the domestic currency improved its value against the US Dollar on Thursday by N46 to close at N841/$1 versus the midweek session’s rate of N887/$1.

Similarly, the Nigerian currency appreciated against the Dollar during the session by N50 to sell at N840/$1, in contrast to the previous trading day’s N890/$1.

Further, the Naira improved by N27 against the Pound Sterling at the spot market to close at N951.73/£1 versus the previous day’s value of N978.83/£1 and against the Euro by N24.37 to finish at N812.62/€1 compared with the preceding session’s N836.99/€1.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market faced a sell-off on Thursday, with Bitcoin (BTC) declining by 7.3 per cent to $26,550.92, while Ethereum (ETH) dropped 5.9 per cent to $1,692.44.

Ripple (XRP) lost 14.4 per cent to trade at $0.5044, Litecoin (LTC) fell by 13.6 per cent to $65.18, Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 8.6 per cent to $0.0621, Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 5.8 per cent slide to sell at $218.11, Solana (SOL) depreciated by 5.2 per cent to $22.05, and Cardano (ADA) recorded a 4.9 per cent fall to trade at $0.2631, while Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) traded flat at $1.00 each.