Naira Remains N1,331/$1 at Official Market, N1,358/$1 at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The value of the Naira was relatively unchanged against the United States Dollar in the various windows of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday.

At the parallel market, it was unchanged against the greenback during the session at N1,358/$1 due to low demand for forex.

But at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), it marginally fell against the Dollar by 15 Kobo to trade at N1,331.76/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,331.61/$1.

At the same official market, the Nigerian currency lost 16 Kobo against the Euro to finish at N1,490.64/€1 versus N1,490.48/€1, but appreciated against the Pound Sterling by N1.81 to quote at N1,762.45/£1 versus Thursday’s N1,764.26/£1.

Interbank FX turnover fell by 28.2 per cent to $258.462 million from $201.562 million, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with the number of deals up to 135 deals from 128 deals a day earlier.

The Naira-Dollar exchange rate outlook remains relatively stable in the medium term as the CBN continues to rely on stronger external reserves, foreign exchange liquidity and monetary policy measures to support the local currency

As for the cryptocurrency market, it was down as investors assessed mixed US spot Bitcoin ETF flows and persistent concerns over institutional demand.

The digital currencies struggled to sustain recent gains amid stronger US economic data and expectations of further Federal Reserve interest rate increases.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $82.39 million in net outflows on October 16, according to Coinfomania, with BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust accounting for $71.78 million.

The withdrawals reflected investor redemptions rather than a strategic decision by BlackRock to reduce its own Bitcoin exposure.

Cardano (ADA) dropped by 3.6 per cent to $0.2234, Ripple (XRP) slid by 2.9 per cent to $1.30, Dogecoin (DOGE) declined by 2.4 per cent to $0.0804, Solana (SOL) crashed by 1.7 per cent to $104.89, Binance Coin (BNB) went down by 1.3 per cent to $721.49, Ethereum (ETH) depreciated by 0.9 per cent to $2,432.99, and Bitcoin (BTC) slumped by 0.7 per cent to $81,607.76.

But Tron (TRON) appreciated by 0.2 per cent to $0.3354, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.