Naira Weakens at I&E, Strengthens at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira weakened against the United States Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market on Wednesday, September 21, by 25 Kobo or 0.06 per cent to trade at N436.50/$1 compared with the previous day’s N436.25/$1.

Business Post reports that sustained demand pressure watered down the value of the Nigerian currency during the session, though the value of transactions decreased by 5.3 per cent or $7.54 million to $133.97 million from $141.51 million.

However, in the black market, the local currency appreciated against the greenback by N1 yesterday to sell at N712/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N713/$1.

Also, in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) forex window, the value of the Nigerian currency appreciated against the US Dollar by N5 to quote at N725/$1 in contrast to the N730/$1 it was sold a day earlier.

Furthermore, the domestic currency made more gains in the interbank segment of the market against the British Pound Sterling and the Euro in the midweek session.

Against the Pound Sterling, the Naira was strengthened by 72 Kobo to wrap up at N488.59/£1 versus Tuesday’s N489.31/£1 and against the Euro, the Nigerian currency improved by N2.83 to settle at N426.75/€1 versus N429.58/€1.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market recorded a bullish outcome, with eight of the 10 tokens tracked by Business Post pointing northwards.

Litecoin (LTC) jumped by 3.8 per cent to trade at $54.34, Cardano (ADA) recorded a 1.9 per cent climb to sell at $0.4528, Bitcoin (BTC) made a 1.3 per cent gain to quote at $19,311.70, Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 1.1 per cent to trade at $271.40, Dogecoin (DOGE) added a 1.0 per cent to its value to sell for $0.0596, Solana (SOL) jumped by 0.9 per cent to settle at $32.28, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 0.8 per cent appreciation to trade at $0.4154, and Binance USD (BUSD) recovered 0.02 per cent to sell at $0.9999.

However, the value of Ethereum (ETH) waned by 0.4 per cent to sell at $1,347.76, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) closed flat at $1.00.