Naira Weakens at Official Market, P2P, Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Naira weakened on the American Dollar across various segments of the foreign exchange (forex) on Monday, as the buzz created by the injection of the $3 billion emergency loan from, Afreximbank wanes.

Last week, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited obtained a loan from the lender to stabilise the FX market, which was getting battered because of a liquidity crisis.

After firming the Naira for a few days, reality dawned on the market yesterday, as the value of the nation’s legal tender shrank at the Investors and Exporters (I&E), black market, and the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) windows at the close of business.

It lost N21.80 or 2.98 per cent against the greenback on the opening day of the week to trade at N761.32/$1, in contrast to last Friday’s closing price of N739.52/$1, with forex transactions for the day at $64.98 million, according to data from FMDQ Securities Exchange.

In the parallel market, the Nigerian currency depreciated against its American counterpart on Monday by N10 to quote at N855/$1 compared with the preceding session’s rate of N845/$1.

Similarly, the Naira fell against the US Dollar in the P2P arm of the market by N36 during the trading day to close at N880/$1 versus N844/$1 of the previous trading session.

A look at the exchange rate of the Naira to the Pound Sterling in the official market showed a similar pattern as it declined by N21.76 to sell at N969.83/£1 compared with last Friday’s value of N948.07/£1 and against the Euro, it lost N19.64 to finish at N829.06/€1 versus N809.42/€1.

Business Post observed that the crypto market was not different on Monday as panic selling continued, with Bitcoin (BTC) posting its worst week since May, losing 0.2 per cent to sell at $26,027.75.

Ethereum (ETH) shed 0.8 per cent to quote at $1,662.41, Cardano (ADA) shrank by 3.0 per cent to $0.2618, Binance Coin (BNB) dropped 2.9 per cent to finish at $209.66, Ripple (XRP) fell by 1.9 per cent to $0.5219, Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 1.7 per cent to $0.0622, and Solana (SOL) crumbled by 1.5 per cent to $21.11.

However, Litecoin (LTC) went up by 0.5 per cent to trade at $66.48, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.