Naira Loses at P2P, Black Market, Gains at Spot Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated against the United States Dollar at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange market on the first working day of the year on Tuesday.

In the P2P forex window, the value of the Nigerian currency weakened against the greenback by N6 to close at N749$1 compared with Monday’s value of N743/$1.

Also, in the black market window, the local currency lost N2 against the American currency yesterday to settle at N737/$1, in contrast to the preceding session’s N735/$1.

However, in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment, the Naira appreciated against the US Dollar by 50 Kobo or 0.11 per cent to close at N461.00/$1 compared with last Friday’s rate of N461.50/$1 amid a decline in the value of FX transactions in the market window.

According to data from FMDQ Securities Exchange, forex worth $153.45 million were transacted during the trading day compared with the $176.24 million traded in the preceding session, representing a decline of $22.79 million or 12.93 per cent.

It was observed that the exchange rate benchmark of the 2023 appropriation bill of N21.8 trillion signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday was N435.57/$1, which is different from the current rate. In the 2022 budget, it was N410.15/$1, while the crude oil benchmark was increased by 13 per cent to $70 per barrel from $62 per barrel.

Meanwhile, in the interbank segment, the Naira closed flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro yesterday at N540.70/£1 and N479.45/€1, respectively.

The cryptocurrency market continued its bearish outcome as the 10 benchmarked currencies by Business Post to assess the daily direction of the industry moved in different directions on Tuesday.

Dogecoin (DOGE) slumped by 2.9 per cent to trade at $0.0702, Ripple (XRP) dropped 1.7 per cent to $0.3459, Cardano (ADA) recorded a 1.5 per cent decrease to sell at $0.2511, Ethereum (ETH) fell by 0.6 per cent to $1,210.26, Binance Coin (BNB) lost 0.5 per cent to settle at $245.41, and Bitcoin (BTC) went down by 0.4 per cent to $16,655.55.

However, Solana (SOL) gained 16 per cent to sell at $13.02, as Litecoin (LTC) added 0.7 per cent to trade at $75.35, with Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) closing flat at $1.00 each.