Value of Naira Against Dollar Worsens at I&E

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira extended its depreciation against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday.

Business Post reports that the Naira recorded a new low yesterday after it depreciated by 50 kobo or 0.12 per cent to sell for N411/$1 in contrast to the preceding session’s N410.50/$1.

Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the decline in the value of the Nigerian currency against its American counterpart occurred despite a drop in the turnover for the day.

Transactions worth $11.85 million were recorded at the midweek session as against the $40.80 million achieved at the preceding session, indicating a $28.95 million or 70.9 per cent decrease in the market turnover.

The major reason for the decline could be that FX traders did not have enough supply to meet the demand of their customers as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has refused to intervene in the segment like it used to.

But at the unregulated window of the forex market yesterday, the local currency continued to maintain its stability against the United States Dollar as it closed flat at N485/$1.

It also remained unchanged against the Euro at the same parallel market, closing at N573/€1, but gained N4 on the Pound Sterling to close at N670/£1 versus N674/£1 it was sold on Tuesday.

At the interbank window of the forex market on Wednesday, the value of the Naira to the greenback remained flat at N379/$1.

Coins Bleed at Cryptocurrency Market

The cryptocurrency market was bearish yesterday as the major digital tokens plunged in value, according to information gathered from Quidax, a platform for trading and tracking real-time crypto transactions.

The most popular of the digital currencies, Bitcoin (BTC), recorded a 2.9 per cent depreciation to sell at N27,769,990; Ethereum (ETH) lost 2.5 per cent to trade at N1,005,430.37; while Ripple (XRP) slid by 13.2 per cent to N450.

In addition, the Litecoin (LTC) declined by 3.4 per cent to sell at 111,516; Dash (DASH) fell by 9.1 per cent to sell for N123,313.06; Tron (TRX) plunged by 14.9 per cent to trade at N53.62; while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) lost 0.5 per cent to sell for N495.