By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira’s downfall continued in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday, February 1, despite recent efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (FX) to tackle underlying issues.
According to data obtained from FMDQ Securities Exchange, it plunged against the United States Dollar in the official market yesterday by 0.43 per cent or N6.31 to sell for N1,461.90/$1 versus the previous day’s rate of N1,455.59/$1.
However, it traded flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro in the spot market during the trading day at N1,726.59/£1 and N1,475.34/€1, respectively.
It was observed that the supply of forex into the market segment improved, with a turnover of $155.86 million, which is 16.3 per cent or $21.79 million higher than the midweek’s $134.07 million.
However, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) arm of the foreign exchange (FX) market, the Naira fought tooth and nail to strengthen its value against the American currency on Thursday by N103 to settle at N1,351/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,454/$1.
In the same vein, the domestic currency appreciated against the greenback in the parallel market yesterday by N50 to close at N1,460/$1, in contrast to Wednesday’s exchange rate of N1,510/$1.
The rates indicate that sourcing FX at other unregulated markets are now cheaper than the controlled segments like banks, as the CBN in the last couple of days has made four policy plays towards carving a stable exchange rate.
The apex bank has since issued a directive on financial markets price transparency which mandates banks to report values of transactions; implemented a change in market rate pricing methodology; kicked against banks hoarding FX in case of speculation; and removed caps on international money transactions.
Meanwhile, in the cryptocurrency market, Solana (SOL) saw a 2.7 per cent gain yesterday to trade at $98.99. The boost in SOL is coming as more production gets built on its blockchain with the latest being the JUP token.
Also, Cardano (ADA) jumped by 2.6 per cent to $0.5104, Bitcoin (BTC) surged by 2.2 per cent to $43,248.64, Ethereum (ETH) soared by 1.6 per cent to $2,312.47, and Litecoin (LTC) grew by 1.3 per cent to trade at $67.67.
In addition, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 1.1 per cent gain to finish at $0.5058, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 0.7 per cent to $0.0794, and Binance Coin (BNB) increased by 0.3 per cent to $301.38, while the US Dollar Coin (USDC) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.
