Naira Slumps to N1,438/$1 at NAFEM

By Adedapo Adesanya

Another depreciation was recorded by the Naira against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday, November 11 due to continued FX pressure.

The value of the Nigerian currency depleted against the greenback by N1.42 or 0.09 per cent to N1,438.71/$1 from the N1,437.39/$1 it was exchanged a day earlier.

In the same vein, the domestic currency lost 87 Kobo against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session to sell for N1,895.65/£1 versus the previous day’s N1,894.78/£1 and declined against the Euro by N5.66 to close at N1,663.24/€1, in contrast to Monday’s closing price of N1,657.52/€1.

Equally, at the GTBank FX counter, the Naira depreciated against the Dollar yesterday by N2 to settle at N1,444/$1 versus the preceding session’s rate of N1,442/$1, but at the parallel market, it maintained stability against the United States currency at N1,455/$1.

The decline posted by the Naira followed pressures in the currency market due to slowdown in forex flows from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

FX inflows fell last week by about 14 per cent to $899 million, according to Coronation Merchant Bank research subsidiary, from $1.04 billion the previous week.

Regardless, there are indications that the Naira will trade stable as the CBN maintains stance to support the local currency, a move strengthened by growing external reserves. Nigeria’s external reserves recorded additional inflows that lifted the gross balance to $43.366 billion, up from $43.348 billion.

In the cryptocurrency market, while the overall sentiment has improved the past few days as top tokens bounced from the lows, traders are using the rebound as an opportunity to take profits across the board.

Solana (SOL) went down by 5.2 per cent to $155.76, Litecoin (LTC) lost 3.6 per cent to close at $99.79, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 3.3 per cent to $0.5632, and Dogecoin (DOGE) declined by 2.9 per cent to $0.1725.

Further, Ethereum (ETH) slumped by 2.6 per cent to $3,450.82, Ripple (XRP) fell by 2.5 per cent to $2.40, Binance Coin (BNB) dropped 2.3 per cent to sell for $960.41, and Bitcoin (BTC) shrank by 0.8 per cent to $103,528.13. while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed at $1.00 each.