Naira Trades N1,599/$1 at NAFEM, N1,610/$1 at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

A 0.03 per cent or N55 Kobo appreciation was recorded by the Naira against the US Dollar on Wednesday at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).

The Nigerian currency ended the last trading session of April 2025 on a positive note after its value closed at N1,599.49/$1, in contrast to the N1,600.04/$1 it ended on Tuesday.

Also, the local currency improved its value against the British Pound Sterling by N16.19 in the official market during the session to sell for N2,129.66/£1 compared with the previous day’s N2,145.85/£1 and gained N9.50 against the Euro to quote at N1,814.32/€1 versus the preceding day’s N1,823.82/€1.

At the black market, the Nigerian Naira remained unchanged against the greenback at N1,610/$1.

Market analysts believe the Naira has remained relatively stable due to steps taken by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to defend the forex market, though the outlook seems bleak due to weak crude oil prices, production constraints, and  plans by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) to ramp up production.

So far in the year, foreign reserves has dropped by more than $3 billion to $37.8 billion due to external debt service payments and aggressive intervention in the currency market.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market remained in red as a result of a string of underwhelming economic data amid tariff policies by the US President Donald Trump.

Ripple (XRP) slumped by 1.9 per cent to $2.20, Cardano (ADA) fell by 1.3 per cent to $0.6904, Litecoin (LTC) declined by 1.2 per cent to $84.58, Binance Coin (BNB) went down by 0.8 per cent to $599.84, and Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 0.2 per cent to $0.1750.

However, Solana (SOL) rose by 0.8 per cent to $148.77, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 0.3 per cent to $1,801.15, and Bitcoin (BTC) appreciated by 0.2 per cent to $95,015.32, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) were flat at $1.00 each.