By Adedapo Adesanya
A rush for the Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window pressured the Naira at the final trading of the year 2020, trading at N410.25/$1.
During the session, the local currency lost 4.1 per cent or N16.25 of the value it was sold at the previous trading day, N394/$1.
It was observed that the demand for FX at the market segment contributed to this as transactions worth $235.75 million were made in contrast to the $164.81 million recorded on Wednesday, representing an increase of 43.0 per cent or $70.94 million.
Business Post understands that this rush for the greenback came as the Naira has been predicted to face more pressures in the new year before making recoveries in later months. The local currency dropped more than 25 per cent in value in 2020 weighed heavily by the coronavirus pandemic and an oil price crash.
Meanwhile, the Naira closed flat against the greenback at the parallel market to sell at N470/$1 on Thursday.
This was also the same pattern for the local currency against the Pound and the Euro at the black market, closing at N628/£1 and N573/€1 respectively.
At the Bureaux De Change (BDC) segment of the market, the exchange rate of the Naira to the United States Dollar remained fixed at N395/$1 and at the interbank window, the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar remained unchanged at N379/$1.
At the cryptocurrency market, despite its recent woes, the Ripple (XRP) made a 6.4 per cent gain to trade at N105.89, while Bitcoin (BTC) saw its value gain 1.7 per cent to N13,648,911.82, with the Dash (DASH) making a 2.5 per cent gain to sell at N49,800 as the Tron (TRX) appreciated by 0.1 per cent to sell at N12.79.
However, the Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 5.3 per cent to trade at N58,200.04, Ethereum (ETH) fell by 2.1 per cent to close at N349,979.00, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) depreciated by 0.2 per cent to sell for N474.95.
