Naira Weakens at Peer-to-Peer, I&E, Parallel Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira weakened against the US Dollar in the various segments of the foreign exchange (forex) market [parallel market, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and the Investors and Exporters (I&E)] on Monday, March 13.

In the P2P segment, traders exchanged their local currency for the American currency at an average rate of N754/$1 yesterday versus N752/$1 of the preceding session, indicating a decline of N2.

It was a similar situation in the black market, where the local currency lost N2 against the US currency to settle at N746/$1, in contrast to last Friday’s value of N744/$1.

In the same vein, the domestic currency declined by 17 Kobo or 0.04 per cent against the greenback in the I&E window yesterday to settle at N461.67/$1 compared with the previous exchange rate of N461.50/$1.

The Nigerian currency suffered this decline amid a reduction in the value of FX transactions during the session by 5.95 per cent or $4.92 million to $77.64 million from $82.56 million.

In the interbank segment of the market, the Naira witnessed a southward movement against the Pound Sterling by N9.48 to N557.49/£1 from N548.01/£1, and against the Euro, it lost N5.48 to close at N492.59/£1 versus N487.11/£1.

In the cryptocurrency market, there was a green wave across benchmarked currencies after US regulators stepped in to back deposits at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank, averting what has been tagged a potential financial crisis. This led markets, including the crypto market, to grow hopeful that the near meltdown of the banking sector would prompt the US Federal Reserve to ease its rate hike.

Bitcoin rose further above the $24,000 mark as it jumped by 9.6 per cent to sell at $24,386.85, while Ethereum (ETH) grew by 5.4 per cent to sell at $1,680.74.

Binance Coin (BNB) added 6.5 per cent to sell for $307.31, Litecoin (LTC) went up by 3.2 per cent to trade at $81.16, Solana (SOL) improved by 3.5 per cent to $20.37, Dogecoin (DOGE) expanded by 3.2 per cent to $0.0723, Cardano (ADA) added 1.5 per cent to trade at $0.3443, and Ripple (XRP) recorded a 0.6 per cent appreciation to quote at $0.3714, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) traded flat at $1.00 each.