By Adedapo Adesanya
The promise by President Bola Tinubu that Nigeria was expecting inflows of $10 billion in the coming weeks to ease tensions in the foreign exchange (FX) market could not save the Naira from further decline in the parallel market on Monday.
The local currency lost N77 against the United States Dollar in the black market yesterday to sell at N1,230/$1 compared with last Friday’s exchange rate of N1,153/$1.
At intraday, the Nigerian currency was exchanging against the Dollar on the streets at N1,220/$1 but things later got worse after the news of the expected $10 billion inflows.
Speaking at the Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja on Monday, President Tinubu said the liquidity squeeze that has resulted in the Naira weakening to record lows against the Dollar will ease due to moves being carried out.
“My government is not blind to the challenges several of you are facing in the financial markets,” Mr Tinubu said adding, “I can only allay this concern by revealing that we have a good line of sight for the additional foreign-exchange liquidity that is required to restore market confidence and we are going to do that soon.”
However, the domestic was deaf to this, as its value weakened against the greenback in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window by N46 to trade at N1,210/$1, in contrast to last Friday’s rate of N1,164/$1.
But in the official market, which is the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), the Naira appreciated against the Dollar during the session by N14.93 or 1.85 per cent to finish at N793.34/$1 versus the preceding session’s N808.27/$1.
The value of forex trades in the spot market increased by $2.29 million or 2.9 per cent to $81.55 million from the $79.26 million achieved in the preceding session.
Also, the Naira gained N41.56 against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday to settle at N969.36/£1 compared with last Friday’s value of N1,010.92/£1 and on the Euro, the local currency improved its value by N36.30 to close at N844.48/€1 versus N880.78/€1.
In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) extended a rally fueled by expectations of fresh demand from exchange-traded funds, reaching the highest price since May last year after it went up by 10.4 per cent to $33,927.99.
The possible approval in the coming weeks of the first US spot Bitcoin ETFs is stoking speculative ardour for the token. Asset managers BlackRock and Fidelity Investments are among those in the race to offer such products. Analysts argue that ETFs would widen adoption of the cryptocurrency.
Further, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 7.2 per cent to sell at $1,810.68, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 6.7 per cent to $0.0669, Cardano (ADA) added 5.2 per cent to trade at $0.2803, Litecoin (LTC) went up by 1.6 per cent to $69.29, Ripple (XRP) jumped by 3.5 per cent to $0.541, Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 2.9 per cent to $228.19, and Solana (SOL) expanded by 0.7 per cent to $31.00, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat at $1.00 each.
Modupe Gbadeyanka