Naira Slides to N847/$1 at NAFEM, N1,230 at P2P

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Tuesday, October 24, amid sustained forex demand pressure.

In the official market, the local currency lost N54.43 or 6.9 per cent to trade at N847.77/$1 compared with the previous day’s N793.34/$1, as the value of FX transactions went up by 8.0 per cent or $6.55 million to $88.10 million from the $81.55 million quoted on Monday.

Also, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window, the Nigerian currency weakened against the greenback yesterday by N10.00 to sell at N1,230/$1 versus Monday’s closing price of N1,210/$1.

In the same vein, the domestic currency depreciated against the American currency by N5 during the trading session to close at N1,235/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s N1,230/$1.

It was observed that the Naira is yet to welcome the promise by the government of President Bola Tinubu that inflows of $10 billion would hit the system in the coming weeks.

At the 29th Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja on Monday, Mr Tinubu, alongside his top ministers, said moves were being taken to ensure liquidity in the market, promising to clear backlogs and fulfil all forward contract obligations.

Ostensibly not convinced about how the government will source funds to clear the backlog, the local currency performed poorly against the Pound Sterling in the spot market on Tuesday by N34.74 to sell at N1,004.10/£1 versus N969.36/£1 and against the Euro, it lost N29.78 to quote at N874.26/€1 compared with Monday’s N844.48/€1.

Meanwhile, in the cryptocurrency market, some tokens shook off some recent rallies spurred by a potential spot Bitcoin ETF approval that has been touted could mean more approval for the tokens.

Yesterday, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) slid by 1.2 per cent to sell at $34,001.90, Ethereum (ETH) shed 2.5 per cent to $1,783.16, Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 2.9 per cent to $0.0659, Binance Coin (BNB) shrank by 1.7 per cent to $227.43, Litecoin (LTC) declined by 0.9 per cent to $69. 51, Solana (SOL) crashed by 0.8 per cent to $31.39, and Cardano (ADA) also depreciated by 0.8 per cent to trade at $0.2811.

However, Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 1.1 per cent to settle at $0.5528, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.