Naira Plunges to N789/$1 at I&E, N872/$1 at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated heavily against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market on Tuesday, August 1, by N32.14 or 4.25 per cent to settle at N789.08/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s rate of N756.94/$1.

This came as the daily turnover published on FMDQ Securities Exchange witnessed no significant change, with the value of FX transactions marginally growing to $67.33 million from $67.21 million.

Also, in the parallel market, the local currency shed N7 against the Dollar during the trading session to trade at N872/$1 compared with Monday’s exchange rate of N865/$1.

In the same vein, the domestic currency depreciated against the greenback in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the forex market, the Nigerian currency lost N5 against its American counterpart yesterday to close at N876/$1 compared with the previous day’s closing value of N871/$1.

Also, in the official segment of the fx market, the Naira depreciated against the British Pound Sterling by N12.93 to sell at N990.69/£1 versus the preceding session’s N977.76/£1 and against the Euro, it weakened by N12.42 to sell at N851.11/€1, in contrast to Monday’s N838.69/€1.

Speaking at the Senate on Tuesday, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Monetary Policies, Mr Wale Edun, said the currency will soon begin to appreciate as he warned speculators.

He also said corruption in the country’s exchange-rate system had led to the wide disparity and said that it is now being addressed by President Tinubu.

“As liquidity flows in, the rate will come down,” he said.

As for the digital currency market, it was mixed as investors remain cautious and undecided on where to turn at the moment.

Bitcoin (BTC) rose by 0.1 per cent to sell at $25,787.83, Binance Coin (BNB) gained 1.9 per cent to trade at $245.90, and Litecoin (LTC) appreciated by 0.8 per cent to $93.01.

On the flip side, Ethereum (ETH) shed 0.3 per cent to quote at $1,850.11, Solana (SOL) slumped by 0.9 per cent to $23.60, Cardano (ADA) slid by 0.7 per cent to trade at $0.3069, and Dogecoin (DOGE) declined by 0.2 per cent to $0.0773.

However, the trio of the US Dollar Tether (USDT), Binance USD (BUSD) and Ripple (XRP) traded flat at $1.00, $1.00, and $0.7003, respectively.