Naira Trades N470/$1 as Dollar Scarcity Hits Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira traded weaker than the Dollar on Friday as the scarcity of forex is beginning to have a negative effect on the value of the Nigerian currency.

During the trading day, the Naira was exchanged against the American currency at N470/$1 at the black market in contrast to N468/$1 it was traded the previous day.

In the week, the value of the currency depreciated by 1.01 per cent or N5 as it opened for the week at N465/$1, indicating that it declined to its lowest point since late September.

However, at the same parallel market on Friday, the domestic currency maintained its rate against the British Pound Sterling at N600/£1 and also traded flat against the Euro at N545/€1.

At the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, the local currency depreciated on Friday by 33 kobo or 0.09 per cent against the Dollar to close at N386/$1 compared to N385.67/$1 it closed on Thursday.

This occurred despite a drop in the demand for the greenback at the segment as a total of $113.95 million exchanged hands compared with the $189.91 million recorded on Thursday, indicating a drop by 66.7 per cent or $75.96 million.

At the Bureaux De Segment, the value of the Naira to the Dollar remained at N386/$1, while at the interbank segment, the domestic also sustained stability against the greenback at N379/$1.

At the cryptocurrency market, the Bitcoin (BTC) lost 0.8 per cent to trade at N7,670,019.49, while the Dash (DASH) depreciated by 2.4 per cent to sell at N30,672.52.

However, Ripple (RPX) gained 7.8 per cent to sell for N129.14, Ethereum (ETH) went up by 1.7 per cent to trade at N223,606.00, Litecoin (LTC) rose in value by 3.9 per cent to quote at N30,673.52, Tron (TRX) appreciated by 1.9 per cent to N12.03, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) moved up by 1.5 per cent to N477.55.