Worry as Naira Weakens to N752/$1 at P2P, N713/$1 at Black Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

There was anxiety in the foreign exchange (FX) market in Nigeria on Monday as the value of the Naira to the United States Dollar in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) depreciated by N29 to trade at N752/$1 in contrast to the N723/$1 it was exchanged at the preceding trading day.

The renewed scarcity of forex in the financial system in the country contributed to the weakening of the domestic currency in the currency market yesterday. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is finding it difficult to defend the Naira in the market due to a shortage in FX supply.

This issue also affected the exchange rate of the Nigerian currency to the greenback in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the market yesterday as the former lost 25 Kobo or 0.06 per cent to close at N436.50/$1 in contrast to last Friday’s value of N436.25/$1.

Business Post observed that FX traders were unable to meet the demands of their customers yesterday despite the low trading value. Forex valued at $41.02 million were traded during the session, 11.2 per cent lower than the $46.17 million recorded in the preceding session.

In the black market, the local currency depreciated against the American currency on Monday by N2 to settle at N713/$1 compared with N711/$1.

However, in the interbank window, the Naira gained N4.09 against the Pound Sterling to finish at N489.31/£1 versus N493.40/£1 and lost 76 Kobo against the Euro to quote at N429.58/€1 versus N428.82/€1.

Meanwhile, in the cryptocurrency market, transactions were mixed as Solana (SOL) jumped 4.9 per cent to $32.87, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 1.8 per cent to $1,361.20, Binance Coin (BNB) expanded by 1.2 per cent to $269.40, Dogecoin (DOGE) improved by 1.1 per cent to $0.0585, Cardano (ADA) chalked up 0.9 per cent to sell at $0.4535, while Bitcoin (BTC) increased by 0.14 per cent to $19,541.56.

But Litecoin (LTC) slumped by 3.1 per cent to trade at $52.30, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 0.8 per cent loss to trade at $0.3849, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat at $1.00, respectively.