Naira Sells N1,580/$1 at Official Market After CBN Intervention

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira appreciated against the United States Dollar by 0.81 per cent N12.86 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Monday, September 9 to close at N1,580.46/$1 compared with last Friday’s closing rate of N1,593.32/$1.

The positive outcome followed the injection of FX into the market by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last Friday to strengthen the local currency.

The CBN approved the sale of $20,000 each to an unspecified number of eligible Bureau De Change (BDCs) operators at the rate of N1,580 to a Dollar.

This development was confirmed in a statement issued by the Acting Director of Trade and Exchange Department of the apex bank, Dr Williams Kanaya.

“This is to inform the BDC operators and the general public that we are providing more liquidity into the market.

“To this end, the CBN has approved the sale of 20,000 dollars to each eligible BDC operator at the rate of N1,580/dollar. This is to meet the demand for invisible transactions,” the statement said.

All BDCs are allowed to sell to eligible end-users at a margin not more than one per cent above the purchase rate from CBN.

The forex turnover for the trading session, however, declined by $47.8 million or 19.5 per cent to $197.37 million from $245.17 million.

In the spot market, the Nigerian Naira closed flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro at the official market during the session at N2,144.61/£1 and N1,804.99/€1, respectively.

In the parallel market, the Nigerian currency appreciated against the greenback on Monday by N5 to sell for N1,650/$1 versus last Friday’s exchange rate of N1,655/$1.

In the cryptocurrency market, crypto put in a nice rebound on Monday after an ugly start to September that saw the price fall of Bitcoin (BTC) below $53,000 at one point last Friday.

Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped 7.8 per cent to sell at $0.1037, Solana (SOL) recorded a 4.9 per cent rise to trade at $134.21, BTC increased by 4.0 per cent to end at $56,894.16, and Binance Coin (BNB) added 3.3 per cent to close at $519.33.

Further, Ethereum (ETH) rose by 2.6 per cent to trade at $2,347.39, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 1.9 per cent appreciation to settle at $0.5377, Litecoin (LTC) went up by 0.6 per cent to $60.78, and Cardano (ADA) expanded by 0.5 per cent to $0.3417.

Meanwhile, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 a piece.