Naira Holds Steady at N1,331/$1 at NAFEM

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira was relatively flat against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, September 18, though it gained 8 Kobo to trade at N1,331.20/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,331.28/$1.

It, however, strengthened against the Pound Sterling by N9.16 to close at N1,771.16/£1 versus N1,780.32/£1, and against the Euro, it gained N3.15 to settle at N1,526.36/€1 versus N1,529.51/€1.

But at the GTBank forex counter, the Nigerian Naira depreciated against the US Dollar by N2 to N1,338/$1 from N1,336/$1, and traded flat at the parallel market at N1,370/$1.

The Naira is expected to remain steady, supported by Dollar sales by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and subdued demand for foreign exchange.

Dollar sales by the apex bank are helping to meet short-term demand, while import demand remains relatively subdued in mid-September compared with the typical seasonal demand seen in the fourth quarter.

Interbank FX turnover rose by 93.2 per cent to $162.67 million, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), from $84.217 million recorded the previous day. This came as deals on record shot up to 127 from 104.

Gross external reserves rose to $54.668 billion as of September 16, up from $54.607 billion previously, strengthening the apex bank’s buffer to support the local currency.

In the cryptocurrency market, the majority of benchmarked tokens were up as the market looked past the sudden global shift to tighter monetary policy, and the SEC “innovation exemption” trumped the failure of the Clarity Act. Bitcoin (BTC) rose above $81,000 after it jumped 4.7 per cent to sell at $81,187.04.

The rally coincided with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC’s) submission of a proposal titled Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review. Details of the proposal have not yet been made public.

Ripple (XRP) rose by 7.3 per cent to $1.42, Solana (SOL) grew by 6.0 per cent to $112.08, Ethereum (ETH) expanded by 5.8 per cent to $2,632.01, Cardano (ADA) advanced by 4.5 per cent to $0.2232, and Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped by 3.6 per cent to $0.0872.

Further, Binance Coin (BNB) added 1.0 per cent to sell for $762.13, and TRON (TRX) increased by 0.5 per cent to $0.3376, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.