By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira was officially floated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday, allowing the value of the local currency to be determined by market conditions, especially demand and supply.
During the midweek session, the Naira plunged against the US Dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment by 40.8 per cent to trade at N664.04/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N461.67$1, according to data from FMDQ Securities Exchange.
Earlier in the day, Business Post reported that commercial banks had been granted the autonomy to trade FX freely, meaning that the rates will be determined by supply and demand rather than the CBN, though as of the time of this report, the apex bank was yet to make an official announcement about this development.
In the black market, the Nigerian currency depreciated against the greenback today by N3 to quote at N753/$1, in contrast to Tuesday’s rate of N750/$1.
However, in the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) window, the local currency closed flat against the Dollar on Wednesday to remain at N768/$1.
In the interbank segment, the Naira lost N4.86 against the Pound Sterling to settle at N582.14/£1 versus its previous rate of N577.28/£1 and it shed N3.80 to close at N499.48/€1 compared with Tuesday’s value of N495.68/€1.
In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) added 0.5 per cent to sell at $25,959.48, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 0.1 per cent to $1,737.21, Binance Coin (BNB) jumped by 4.2 per cent to $246.77, Solana (SOL) expanded by 2.5 per cent to $15.25, Dogecoin (DOGE) made a 1.3 per cent appreciation to sell at $0.0618, and Litecoin (LTC) rose by 0.6 per cent to trade at $77.54.
On the flip side, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 1.4 per cent slide to quote at $0.5038, Cardano (ADA) lost 0.2 per cent to trade at $0.2728, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
