Naira Weakens to N1,596/$1 at NAFEM, N1,610/$1 at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated against the United States Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Monday, August 26 amid fresh concerns about forex supply constraints.

The local currency lost 1.69 per cent or N26.46 against the greenback during the trading session to finish at N1,596.60/$1 compared with last Friday’s price of N1,570.14/$1.

Equally, the domestic currency weakened against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N7.76 to wrap the session at N2,094.81/£1 versus N2,087.11/£1 and sagged by N1.09 against the Euro to settle at N1,771.09/€1 versus N1,770.74/€1.

The loss occurred as FX supply to the space depreciated by 14.8 per cent or $17.88 million to $102.93 million from the preceding session’s $120.81 million.

The Naira also lost N5 against the US Dollar in the parallel market on Monday to quote at N1,610/$1, in contrast to the previous session’s rate of N1,605/$1.

The Nigerian Naira is weakening as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has paused recent interventions to stabilise the foreign exchange market after it had promised to address the supply gap to ensure market stability.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was majorly negative with investors and traders going on a profit-taking spree that led to benchmarked tokens ending southwards.

Dogecoin (DOGE) fell by 2.7 per cent to sell at $0.1061, Cardano (ADA) slid by 2.6 per cent to trade at $0.3693, Ethereum (ETH) dropped by 1.8 per cent to $2,691.34, and Binance Coin (BNB) went south by 1.6 per cent to trade at $555.07.

Further, Litecoin (LTC) recorded a 1.4 per cent loss to trade at $63.32, Bitcoin (BTC) recorded a 1.3 per cent drop as it sold at $62,934.90, Ripple (XRP) fell by 1.1 per cent to $0.5891, Solana (SOL) slumped 0.7 per cent to trade at $158.17, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) both remained unchanged at $1.00 each.