Worry as Naira Now Trades at N502 Per Dollar

By Adedapo Adesanya

Many Nigerians have expressed worry over the fast rate the Naira is depreciating against the Dollar at the foreign exchange (forex) market, especially at the unregulated window.

The woes of the domestic currency started a few days ago when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) further devalued the Naira to N410/$1 from N379/$1.

The domestic currency, which was then at N480 to N485 per Dollar at the black, has now crossed the N500/$1 region, giving some observers something to worry about.

At the parallel market on Friday, the Nigerian currency depreciated by N3 against the American currency to trade at N502/$1 compared with N499/$1 it closed on Thursday.

Also, at the unregulated market segment, the local currency also further depreciated against the Pound Sterling by N7 to close at N710/£1 in contrast to Thursday’s N703/£1 and against the Euro, it dropped N6 to close at N608/€1 versus N602/€1 of the previous day.

A look at the Investors and Exchange (I&E) window, the Naira appreciated against the greenback by 0.04 per cent or 15 kobo to quote at N410.75/$1 as against the previous N410.90/$1.

The Naira closed stronger yesterday despite a 64.1 per cent or $90.17 million rise in the demand for FX at the market window to $230.93 million from $140.76 million achieved at the preceding day.

Also, at the interbank segment of the market, the domestic currency appreciated against its American counterpart by 4 kobo to sell for N410.18/$1 versus N410.22/$1 it previously traded.

As for the digital currency market, four of the seven tokens tracked by Business Post on Quidax closed bullish with Bitcoin (BTC) growing by 1.8 per cent to close at N18,837,628.28.

Ripple (XRP) gained 2.5 per cent to trade at N491.99, Litecoin (LTC) moved up by 0.8 per cent to trade at N91,316.07, while Tron (TRX) went up by 0.2 per cent to sell at N39.99.

Ethereum (ETH) was bearish as it went down by 3.9 per cent to close at N1,328,001.00, Dash (DASH) declined by 2.9 per cent to sell at N99,000.00. while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) dropped 0.7 per cent to quote at N503.49.