Naira Loses Grip on Dollar, Pound, Euro at Parallel Market Monday

By Adedapo Adesanya

The week opened in a disappointing manner for the Naira against the three benchmarked foreign currencies – the US Dollar, the Pound Sterling and the Euro – at the parallel market of the foreign exchange market on Monday, February 22.

At the unregulated segment of the foreign exchange market, the local currency depreciated by N3 against the greenback to finish at N480/$1 in contrast to N477/$1 of the previous session.

It lost N5 against the Pound Sterling to close at N660/£1 compared to N655/£1 it traded last Friday, while it depreciated by N3 on the Euro to close at N580/€1 versus N577/€1.

However, the Naira was stable against the US Dollar at the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window of the FX market yesterday as it traded at N410/$1, the same rate it was exchanged at the previous session.

This was complemented by a decline in the demand for the greenback as transactions worth $52.58 million were recorded in contrast to $66.41 million of the preceding session, indicating a $13.83 million or 20.8 per cent decrease.

At the Interbank and Bureaux De Change (BDC) segments of the market, the local currency still held its ground to wrap up the day N379/$1 and N395/$1 respectively.

At the cryptocurrency market, the highs of the recent days seem to be dipping as only two out of the seven tokens tracked by Business Post ended up in the positives, with others shedding large percentages.

Bitcoin, which had topped a high of N32 million, plunged by 11.3 per cent to sell at N29,717,999.99. Ethereum (ETH) slid by 13.0 per cent to trade at N1,010,534.99, Litecoin (LTC) made an 11.5 per cent dip to trade at N119,000, Dash (DASH) depreciated by 8.2 per cent to N152,928.70, while Tron (TRX) recorded a 9.6 per cent drop to trade at N32.

However, Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 4.4 per cent to trade at N334, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) surged 16.5 per cent to N613.00.