Naira Loses Value At I&E As Presidential Election Results Trickle In

By Adedapo Adesanya

The value of the Naira depreciated against the US Dollar in the official market segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Monday as the country awaits its next president as the results of last Saturday’s presidential election trickle in.

Data obtained by Business Post showed that the Naira value shrank in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the FX market, but gained in the black market and the Peer-to-Peer (P2P).

The Nigerian currency lost 93 Kobo or 0.18 per cent against the American currency in the I&E window to trade at N462.00/$1, in contrast to the N461.17/$1 recorded in the previous trading day.

During the session, the value of FX transactions went down by 59.2 per cent or $78.93 million to $54.37 million from the $133.30 million achieved in the preceding session.

However, the local currency appreciated against the greenback yesterday by N1 in the P2P window to sell at N768/$ compared with the preceding session’s rate of N769/$1.

In the same vein, the Naira was strengthened against the US Dollar by N13 in the black market to close at N750/$1 versus last Friday’s exchange rate of N763/$1.

In the interbank segment, the Naira depreciated against the Pound Sterling by 12 Kobo to close at N552.52/£1 versus its previous rate of N552.40/£1, but against the Euro, it gained 58 Kobo to close at N486.97£1 versus N487.55/£1.

In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) traded above $23,000 but was down as the markets continue to react to a string of US data which was not enough to support inflationary fears. At the close of business, it fell by 0.08 per cent to sell at $23,395.74.

Ethereum (ETH) shed 0.5 per cent to trade at $1,628.00, Solana (SOL) went down by 2.4 per cent to $22.33, Binance Coin (BNB) decreased by 0.8 per cent to $303.77, while Litecoin (LTC) declined by 0.7 per cent to trade at $93.91.

However, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 0.9 per cent to $0.0822, Ripple (XRP) grew by 0.4 per cent to $0.3782, and Cardano (ADA) rose by 0.3 per cent to $0.3647, as the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.