Naira Now Sells N414.67/$1 at I&E FX Segment

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira recorded a marginal 0.02 per cent or 6 kobo appreciation against the United States Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Thursday.

Business Post reports that during the session, the Naira was sold to forex users at N414.67/$1 in contrast to N414.73/$1 it was traded at the previous session, which was on Wednesday.

It was observed that one of the factors that caused the gains achieved by the domestic currency was the ease in pressure as the demand for FX waned at the market segment.

Data showed that transactions valued at $124.35 million were carried out yesterday at the I&E window compared with the $266.32 million achieved a day earlier, indicating a decline by 53.3 per cent or $141.97 million.

However, the exchange rate of the local currency as against the American currency closed flat at the interbank segment of the market on Thursday at N410.81/$1.

This happened as President Muhammadu Buhari presented the N16.39 trillion 2022 Appropriation Bill tagged a Budget of Economic Growth and Sustainability before a joint session of the National Assembly.

The oil benchmark for the year was set at $57 per barrel, while the exchange rate is N410.50/$1.

The budget is projected to stimulate economic growth by 4.2 per cent, while the inflation rate is put at 13 per cent.

It is projected oil production will be at 1.88 million barrels per day including condensates while the budget deficit is estimated at N6.23 trillion.

As for the digital currency market, transactions remained mixed with Cardano (ADA) growing by 3.9 per cent to trade at N1,353.13 as Litecoin (LTC) went up by 3.8 per cent to trade at N104,997.00.

Ethereum (ETH) appreciated by 3.1 per cent to sell at N2,038,577.45, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 2.5 per cent to trade at N181,871.94, Dash (DASH) gained 1.7 per cent to sell at N106,754.36, while Tron (TRX) made a 1.6 per cent appreciation to sell at N54.64.

On the negative side, Dogecoin (DOGE) fell by 2.8 per cent to trade at N156.80, Bitcoin (BTC) went down by 1.5 per cent to close at N30,672.039.30, Ripple (XRP) dropped 0.9 per cent to trade at N603.56, while the United States Dollar Tether lost 0.1 per cent to trade at N569.60.