Naira Succumbs to FX Demand Pressure, Sheds 0.03% at Official Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The exchange rate of the Naira to the US Dollar was in favour of the latter on Monday at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (forex) market amid a rise in demand for FX during the trading session.

According to data obtained by Business Post from FMDQ Securities Exchange, the value of forex transactions in the official FX market in Nigeria stood at $132.77 million, 37.1 per cent or $35.96 million higher than the $96.81 million recorded in the preceding session.

Its inability to soak this significant FX demand pressure weakened the local currency yesterday by a marginal 13 Kobo or 0.03 per cent to quote at N461.63/$1, in contrast to last Friday’s value of N461.50/$1.

In the peer-to-peer (P2P) segment of the FX market, the exchange rate of the Nigerian currency paired with its American counterpart remained flat at N760/$1.

It was a similar story in the interbank window, where the value of the Nigerian Naira and the British Pound Sterling remained unchanged at N562.71/£1, and against the Euro, it was also flat yesterday at N493.09/€1.

But in the black market, the domestic currency appreciated against the greenback on Monday by N1 to settle at N747/$1 compared with the preceding trading session’s rate of N748/$1.

Meanwhile, a look at the cryptocurrency market showed that Bitcoin (BTC) continued its stellar performance yesterday by gaining 1.9 per cent to trade at $23,011.12, with Ethereum (ETH) growing by 0.5 per cent to quote at $1,633.08.

The gains posted by these two heavyweights were spurred by renewed hopes from investors that there will be a reversal in the monetary tightening that gripped the global market last year.

Ripple (XRP) printed the highest increase yesterday, 7.1 per cent, to trade at $0.4286, as Litecoin (LTC) jumped by 3.5 per cent to $90.50, with Binance Coin (BNB) rising by 1.6 per cent to $306.45, and Dogecoin (DOGE) growing by 1.1 per cent to sell at $0.0886.

In addition, Solana (SOL) recorded a 0.9 per cent gain to trade at $24.37, Cardano (ADA) expanded by 0.7 per cent to $0.3769, while Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) closed flat at $1.00 each.