Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira closed the midweek session with yet another weak performance against the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
Data obtained by Business Post showed that the local currency tumbled against the greenback on Wednesday by 0.3 per cent or N4.71 to trade at N1,421.06/$1 compared with Tuesday’s closing price of N1,416.77/$1 amid a drop in confidence in the foreign exchange (FX) market despite efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to guard it.
Also, the Naira depreciated against the British Pound Sterling at the spot market yesterday by N33.89 to wrap the session at N1,774.11/£1, in contrast to the preceding day’s value of N1,1740.22/£1 and declined against the Euro by N31.53 to settle at N1,523.01/€1 versus N1,491.48/€1.
The flow of forex into the market marginally increased at the midweek session, as the turnover stood at $164.74 million, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, compared with the previous day’s $160.77 million, implying an increase of 2.5 per cent or $3.97 million.
A look at the black market showed that things got worse on Wednesday for the Nigerian currency, as its value crashed against the Dollar by N5 to quote at N1,450/$1 compared with the preceding session’s rate of N1,445/$1.
In the cryptocurrency market, it was a mixture of hot and cold for the benchmarked tokens as Bitcoin (BTC) faced growing market fluctuations, shedding 1.3 per cent to sell for $61,685.11.
Solana (SOL) slumped by 1.2 per cent to trade at $145.45, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 0.4 per cent to sell at $0.1486, and Ethereum (ETH) dropped 0.3 per cent to close at $3,006.68.
On the flip side, Cardano (ADA) rose by 4.2 per cent to $0.4601, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 2.9 per cent to $600.85, Litecoin (LTC) appreciated by 2.5 per cent to $81.94, and Ripple (XRP) gained 0.6 per cent to trade at $0.5231, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.
