Naira Gains at Official Market, Loses at P2P, Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) arm of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Tuesday, October 10 as liquidity remains frail in the near term, with the forex reform momentum slowing considerably.

In the official market, the domestic currency gained N7.71 or 1.00 per cent against the greenback to settle at N765.83/$1 compared with the previous day’s exchange rate of N773.54/$1.

The appreciation came despite a shrink in the supply of FX into the spot market by 37.6 per cent or $36.28 million to $60.30 million from the $96.58 million reported in the preceding session.

However, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window, the value of the Nigerian currency depreciated against the US Dollar during the trading day by N8 to sell at N1,018.00/$1 versus Monday’s exchange rate of N1,010.00/$1.

Also, in the black market, the local currency lost N7 against the American currency on Tuesday to quote at N1,015/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s rate of N1,008/$1.

At the market yesterday, the Naira closed flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro in the official market at N933.34/£1 and N806.21/€1 apiece.

The Nigerian Naira is having difficulties in the forex market because of the perceived inactions of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in clearing its forex backlogs put at over $10 billion amid high inflation and directionless monetary policies, according to analysts.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market slowed on Tuesday as traders continued to observe the development of the war in Gaza, although there are no direct impacts on the market yet.

Bitcoin (BTC) slid 1.9 per cent to sell at $27,097.16, Ethereum (ETH) went down by 2.1 per cent to sell at $1,553.22, Ripple (XRP) shed 2.4 per cent to trade at $0.4867, Cardano (ADA) dropped 2.1 per cent to quote at $0.2467, Binance Coin (BNB) fell 1.1 per cent to $205.90, Litecoin (LTC) crashed by 1.0 per cent to $62.71, Solana (SOL) slumped by 0.7 per cent to $22.07, and Dogecoin (DOGE) declined by 0.2 per cent to $0.0589, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) remaining unchanged at $1.00 each.