Naira Records 18 Kobo Loss Against US Dollar at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira slid marginally against the United States Dollar by 18 Kobo to N1,328.67/$1 from N1,328.49/$1 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday, September 24.

However, it strengthened against the Pound Sterling in the official market by N4.56 during the session to close at N1,758.36/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,762.92/£1, and against the Euro, it gained N3.26 to close at N1,511.63/€1 versus midweek’s closing rate of N1,514.89/€1.

The domestic currency improved its value against the US Dollar at the GTBank forex counter yesterday by N1.50 to sell at N1,336/$1, in contrast to Wednesday’s N1,337.50/$1, and at the parallel market, it remained unchanged at N1,370/$1.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revealed that interbank FX turnover for the trading session jumped by 62.1 per cent to $105.90 million from $279.187 million, with forex deals down to 103 deals from 183 deals.

Nigeria’s gross external reserves ticked upward to $54.834 billion as the race towards the $55 billion mark gained momentum. The external reserves momentum was driven by sustained FX inflows into the economy.

As for the cryptocurrency market, it was up despite drops in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), the two largest coins by market value and capitalisation.

This came as the US employment market remains in strong shape, per government statistics, with initial jobless claims last week remaining at historically low levels, coming in at 197,000 versus 196,000 previously.

BTC lost 0.2 per cent to trade at $84,005.64, while ETH fell by 0.5 per cent to $2,673.97, with TRON (TRX) down by 1.4 per cent to $0.3385, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closing flat at $1.00 apiece.

But Cardano (ADA) grew by 2.7 per cent to $0.2478, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 7.1 per cent to $0.0942, Ripple (XRP) added 1.5 per cent to sell at $1.52, Solana (SOL) expanded by 1.1 per cent to $116.34, and Binance Coin (BNB) increased by 0.2 per cent to $774.20.