By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira depreciated by 10.8 per cent or N80.83 on the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday, November 21, closing at N830.97/$1 compared with the previous day’s N750.14/$1.
The weakening of the Nigerian currency suffered headwinds during the session as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) continued to drag its feet on moves to help the markets.
At the market yesterday, the supply of FX decreased by 30.7 per cent or $54.29 million to $112.46 million from the $176.75 million achieved a day earlier, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
Also, in the peer-to-peer (P2P) window, the local currency declined against the greenback during the session by N9 to sell at N1,136/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,127/$1.
In the same vein, the domestic currency weakened against the American currency by N5 on Tuesday to close at N1,145/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s value of N1,140/$1.
The central bank on Monday postponed a rate-setting meeting, known as the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), for a second time since Mr Olayemi Cardoso as the Governor of the CBN in September.
On September 21, 2023, the CBN postponed the MPC scheduled for September 25-26, 2023.
In the official market, the Naira depreciated against the British Pound Sterling by N1.06 to close at N1,020.27/£1 versus N1,019.21/£1 and on the Euro, it shrank by N1.60 to sell at N893.85/€1 compared with Monday’s rate of N892.85/€1.
Meanwhile, the crypto space closed mixed with Bitcoin (BTC) and Binance Coin (BNB) gaining as Binance’s CEO, Mr Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, pleaded guilty and Binance agreed to a $4.3 billion settlement for violating sanctions and money-transmitting laws.
In news that shocked the market, it was found that Binance illegally relied on US customers as a significant source of revenue and trading activity, recently unsealed documents show, with the criminal complaint revealing years of compliance failures and deliberate obfuscation to protect these crucial yet off-limits users.
At the session, BNB recorded a 3.9 per cent jump to sell at $255.44, Ethereum (ETH) increased by 1.7 per cent to $2,029.31, BTC appreciated by 0.7 per cent to $37,540.45, and Cardano (ADA) gained 0.2 per cent to finish at $0.3831.
However, Solana (SOL) dropped 7.7 per cent to trade at $56.84, Dogecoin (DOGE) slid by 2.0 per cent to $0.0783, Ripple (XRP) went down by 1.8 per cent to $0.6149, and Litecoin slumped by 0.9 per cent to $69.92, while the US Dollar Tether USDt (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat at $1.00 apiece.
Modupe Gbadeyanka