By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar by 0.28 per cent or N1.17 at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday, April 22.
Business Post reports that investors exchanged their local currency for the dollar yesterday at N418.33/$1 compared with the preceding session’s exchange rate of N419.50/$1.
The Nigerian currency may have gained strength during the trading day on the back of an improvement in forex supply to the market by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which has promised to intensify its intervention in the space despite calls from various quarters to finally allow market forces to determine the true value of the domestic currency.
At the official FX window, the value of the Naira also appreciated against the British Pound Sterling on Friday by N6.70 to N536.58/£1 from N543.28/£1 and against the Euro, the local currency gained 29 kobo to wrap the session at N450.28/€1 compared with the previously quoted value of N450.57/€1.
Equally, at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment, the Naira gained 0.17 per cent or N1 against the American currency yesterday to trade at N585/$1 in contrast to the previous day’s N586/$1.
As for the digital currency market, nine of the 10 benchmarked tokens depreciated as the US Federal Reserve signalled that it was ready to jack up interest rates to fight inflation.
Bitcoin (BTC) retreated by 2.8 per cent to N24,470,745, Ripple (XRP) went south by 2.7 per cent to trade at N421.77, Cardano (ADA) also slid by 2.7 per cent to sell at N582.40, while Solana (SOL) dipped by 2.7 per cent to N60,458.05.
In addition, Dogecoin (DOGE) saw a loss of 2.1 per cent to trade at N92.46, Ethereum (ETH) dropped 1.9 per cent to quote at N1,806,318, Dash (DASH) also fell by 1.9 per cent to N60,502.40, Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 1.8 per cent loss to trade at N260,583, while Litecoin (LTC) declined by 1.1 per cent to N62,401.65.
But the US Dollar Tether (USDT) closed flat at N599.99.