By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated against the United States currency on the first trading session of the week in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) segment of the currency market by 5.3 per cent or N41.61 to settle at N750.14/$1 compared with last Friday’s rate of N791.75/$1.
The improvement in the value of the local currency happened after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) again postponed a crucial meeting to decide interest rates.
The CBN postponed the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting yet again after the same was done in September, indicating that the new Governor of the CBN, Mr Olayemi Cardoso, has yet to hold the crucial rates-setting meeting since he took over the post.
However, this did not affect the official market and the supply of FX into the ecosystem, as this increased by 12.0 per cent or $18.97 million to $176.75 million from $157.78 million, enabling forex traders to meet the demands of their customers.
But the domestic currency was not lucky in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window of the FX market as it depreciated against the American currency yesterday by N12 to sell for N1,127/$1 versus last Friday’s value of N1,115/$1.
Also, in the parallel market, the Nigerian currency could not improve its value against the US Dollar as it shrank by N4 to quote at N1,140/$1, in contrast to the previous session’s value of N1,135/$1.
In the spot market, the Naira gained N26.68 against the Pound Sterling on Monday to close at N1,019.21/£1 compared with the previously traded rate of N1,045.89/£1 and against the Euro, it soared by N22.84 to close at N892.25/€1 versus N915.09/€1.
In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) rose by 1.2 per cent to $37,415.49 and Ethereum (ETH) grew by 2.2 per cent to $2,026.44, as Mr Javier Milei won the election to be Argentina’s next president. He promised to scrap the country’s central bank and has been known to show support for crypto.
“We have to understand that the central bank is a scam,” said Mr Milei earlier this year when asked about Bitcoin. “What Bitcoin is representing,” he continued, “is the return of money to its original creator, the private sector.”
His emergence put the digital currency space in a frenzy, with Binance Coin (BNB) expanding its value by 3.2 per cent to $253.78 and Cardano (ADA) jumping by 0.3 per cent to $0.3836.
On the flip side, Solana (SOL) lost 6.8 per cent to sell at $56.70, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 1.8 per cent to $0.0784, Ripple (XRP) moderated by 1.6 per cent to $0.6143, and Litecoin (LTC) dropped 1.2 per cent to trade at $69.37, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat $1.00 each.
