Panic as Naira Falls to N611/$1 at P2P, N595/$1 at Black Market, N420/$1 at

By Adedapo Adesanya

Holders of the Nigerian Naira in need of the United States Dollar are not happy at the moment because the local currency is fast losing its value and making them pay more to get the greenback.

At the black market yesterday, the domestic currency was exchanged with the Dollar at N595/$1 and at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange market, it further declined by 0.5 per cent or N3 to sell for N611/$1 compared with the preceding session’s rate of N608/$1.

Also, at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the FX market, the Naira lost 0.3 per cent or N1.25 against the greenback to trade at N420.00/$1 in contrast to the previous day’s N418.75/$1.

This came amid an increase in the demand for forex as the turnover rose by $44.22 million or 38.2 per cent to $160 million from the $115.78 million recorded at the midweek session.

But at the spot market, the exchange rate of the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed flat at N514.09/£1 and N438.91/€1 respectively.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market recovered some of the losses it posted in the preceding session amid worries about the effect of the inflation rate in the US.

Bitcoin (BTC) appreciated by 9.9 per cent to sell for $30,382.88, Ethereum gained 9.7 per cent to trade at $2,080.40, Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 25.1 per cent to $301.67, Cardano (ADA) surged by 23.8 per cent to $0.5433, while Ripple (XRP) recorded a 21.3 per cent rise to trade at $0.4395.

Further, Dogecoin (DOGE) also improved by 21.3 per cent to $0.0915, Litecoin (LTC) climbed by 15.7 per cent to $69.41, Solana (SOL) grew by 14.4 per cent to $50.10, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) moved upwards by 0.3 per cent to $0.9976.

However, TerraUSD (UST) went down by 74.2 per cent to $0.1766, with market analysts undecided about the factor responsible for this loss as all efforts to save the coin continue to fail.