By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira regained confidence on Monday by chalking up 1.5 per cent or N12.82 against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM) to close at N856.57/$1 versus the preceding session’s N869.39/$1 as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) paid $2 billion to clear a part of its backlog of matured foreign exchange obligations to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs).
The delay in the payment of the debts valued at $7 billion has been said to be responsible for the current volatility in the foreign exchange (FX) market, a situation that has led to the falling value of the Naira against the US Dollar.
According to a statement by the CBN on Sunday, foreign airlines also received $61.64m from the disbursement, aimed at addressing the pending matured forex owed to them.
The optimism boosted the market, which is rife with supply issues.
Also, the domestic currency improved its value against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N41.77 to sell at N1,113.34/£1 compared with last Friday’s rate of N1,155.11/£1, and against the Euro, it gained N41.84 to settle at N960.65/€1, in contrast to the previous session’s N1,002.49/€1.
Business Post reports that the value of forex supply to the spot market decreased during the trading day by 55.9 per cent or $75.73 million, to $59.66 million from the $135.39 million quoted last Friday.
However, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) arm of the FX market, the local currency weakened against the American currency by N6 to sell at N1,224/$1 versus the previous session’s value of N1,218/$1.
In the parallel market, the Nigerian Naira maintained stability against the greenback on Monday at N1,245/$1, according to data obtained by this newspaper.
In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) remained up at $45,000 as traders await the approval of the spot Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), which industry experts speculate a decision will be made this week by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to Standard Chartered, Bitcoin could not only witness substantial inflows but also achieve a remarkable price milestone of $200,000 by the end of 2025, surpassing its previous all-time high.
This projection caused the price of BTC to rise yesterday by 1.5 per cent to $45,086.58 and Litecoin (LTC) grew by 0.3 per cent to $65.71, while Ethereum (ETH) went down by 0.7 per cent to sell at $2,265.76.
Further, Cardano (ADA) lost 2.1 per cent to trade at $0.5106, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 1.8 per cent to $0.0791, Binance Coin (BNB) slid by 1.3 per cent to $302.90, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 0.9 per cent slump to quote at $0.5647, and Solana (SOL) fell by 0.7 per cent to $95.30, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.
Modupe Gbadeyanka