Naira Tumbles at I&E, P2P, Stable at Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira weakened against the American Dollar at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segments of the foreign exchange market (FX) on Monday, February 6, as the country continues to face a cash crunch but maintained stability in the parallel market window.

At the P2P arm of the forex market, the Nigerian currency tumbled against the greenback by N1 yesterday to close at N761/$1 versus the N760/$1 it was sold last Friday.

Also, at the I&E wing of the FX market, the local currency lost 67 Kobo or 0.15 per cent against the US currency to end the first session of the week at N462.17/$1, in contrast to the preceding session’s value of N461.50/$1.

The weakening of the Nigerian Naira happened despite the value of FX transactions going down by $3.00 million or 2.51 per cent to $122.43 million from N119.43 million.

However, in the interbank segment, the Naira appreciated against the Pound Sterling by N12.92 to close at N555.40£1 compared with N568.32/£1 as the Bank of England and the European Central Bank raised interest rates last Thursday and provided guidance suggesting it was nearing the end of its rate hiking cycle.

In the same vein, the domestic currency gained N12.92 N10.82 on the Euro to settle at N496.32/€1 compared with the previous trading session’s value of N507.14/€1.

In the black market, the Naira maintained stability against the United States Dollar, remaining unchanged at N753/$1.

Meanwhile, the crypto space was bearish yesterday as the bullish momentum witnessed last week begin to wear off after last Friday’s stronger-than-expected US non-farm payrolls report, which made investors question the US Federal Reserve’s view that inflation has peaked.

Cardano (ADA) went down by 1.9 per cent to trade at $0.3865, Solana (SOL) depreciated by 1.6 per cent to $23.03, Dogecoin (DOGE) fell by 1.3 per cent to $0.0905, Ripple (XRP) lost 0.8 per cent to trade at $0.3947, Bitcoin (BTC) slid by 0.3 per cent to $22,865.03, and Ethereum (ETH) declined by 0.02 per cent to sell at $1,627.56.

But Litecoin (LTC) went up by 2.8 per cent to $98.69, as Binance Coin (BNB) climbed higher by 0.1 per cent to $326.28, while Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) closed flat at $1.00 each.