Naira Slumps to N850/$1 at NAFEM as FX Supply Rises by 16.5%

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated further in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday, November 14, despite an improvement in the supply of FX into the spot market during the session.

Business Post reports that the value of forex transactions increased yesterday by 16.3 per cent or $20.3 million to $143.55 million from the $123.25 million transacted in the preceding session, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.

However, the local currency depreciated by 6.9 per cent or N54.81 against the United States Dollar to close at N850.22/$1, in contrast to Monday’s exchange rate of N795.41/$1.

Also, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window of the market, the domestic currency lost N9 against the greenback during the trading day to sell for N1,114/$1 versus the previous day’s rate of N1,105/$1.

It was a different scenario for the Naira in the black market section of the forex market on Tuesday as it improved its value against the American currency by N10 to quote at N1,140/$1 compared with the preceding session’s value of N1,150/$1.

Meanwhile, at NAFEM, the Nigerian currency gained N149.66 against the Pound Sterling yesterday to finish at N1,035.77/£1 versus the previous day’s N1,185.43/£1 and against the Euro, it appreciated by N131.05 to quote at N903.13/€1 compared with the Monday’s N1.034.18/€1.

Across the Nigerian banking system, there have been reports of a cash crunch as customers lament their inability to withdraw huge cash in their banks, reminiscent of scarcity experienced during the Naira swap era earlier this year.

In the cryptocurrency market, momentum dropped due to declining enthusiasm about the imminent approval of a spot bitcoin ETF, with Solana (SOL) losing 6.6 per cent to sell at $54.56, as Dogecoin (DOGE) shed 4.3 per cent to quote at $0.0747.

Further, Cardano (ADA) slid by 2.9 per cent to trade at $0.3638, Litecoin (LTC) went south by 2.8 per cent to $71.80, Bitcoin (BTC) recorded a 1.1 per cent slide to close at $36,539.69, Ethereum (ETH) declined by 0.3 per cent to $2,050.47, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 0.2 per cent to $245.89, and Ripple (XRP) depleted by 0.2 per cent to $0.6544, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat $1.00 each.