Nigerian Currency Weakens to N904/$1 at NAFEM

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira’s volatility continued on Wednesday, losing 4.6 per cent or N39.62 on the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), closing at N904.65/$1 versus the preceding session’s N865.03/$1.

The Nigerian currency came under pressure after a rush in the demand for foreign exchange (forex) in the spot market.

Yesterday, the turnover increased by 2.5 per cent or $21.80 million to $120.89 million from the $99.09 million recorded in the preceding trading session.

However, on the Pound Sterling, the local currency appreciated by N123.72 during the session in the official market to finish at N1,145.62/£1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N1,269.34/£1 and against the Euro, it improved by N101.88 to trade at N986.71/€1 versus Tuesday’s closing rate of N1,088.59/€1.

In the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window of the FX market yesterday, the domestic currency weakened against the American currency to sell at N1,217/$1 versus the N1,207/$1 it sold in the previous session.

Also, in the parallel market, the Naira depreciated against the greenback in the midweek session by N10 to quote at N1,260/$1, in contrast to Tuesday’s exchange rate of N1,250/$1.

A look at the crypto market showed that the bears took control of the ecosystem as a result of a market correction, with Bitcoin (BTC) selling around $40,000 due to retail selling combined with whale selling earlier on Monday. It slumped by 2.3 per cent to $40,639.29 on Wednesday.

Solana (SOL) posted the biggest loss yesterday, losing 7.2 per cent to sell at $66.52, Dogecoin (DOGE) made a 5.4 per cent depreciation to quote at $0.0916, Ethereum (ETH) fell by 3.1 per cent to trade at $2,169.87, Litecoin (LTC) went south by 2.9 per cent to finish at $71.31, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 2.6 per cent fall to settle at $0.6091, Binance Coin (BNB) dropped 1.3 per cent to sell for $248.97 and Cardano (ADA) slumped by 0.5 per cent to trade at $0.5582, while the US Dollar Tether (USDt) and US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.