By Adedapo Adesanya
It was a bad day for the Nigerian Naira in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Wednesday as its value weakened against the United States Dollar at the close of business.
Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the local currency lost 0.77 per cent or N12.29 on the greenback in the official market yesterday to sell at N1,606.56/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s N1,594.27/$1.
Equally, the domestic currency depreciated against the Pound Sterling in the spot market at midweek by N11.87 to quote at N2,116.69/£1 versus Tuesday’s closing rate of N2,104.82/£1 and declined against the Euro by N5.46 to settle at N1,782.62/€1 versus the previous day’s N1,777.16/€1.
The FX market has been volatile as recent efforts to bring some stability to the market through a series of auctions held by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for official dealers and Bureau de Change (BDCs) have not been able to tackle high seasonal demand.
Yesterday, the value of forex transactions at NAFEM slightly rose by 5.1 per cent or $4.00 million to $160.94 million from the $156.94 million recorded in the previous trading session.
Business Post reports that in the black market, the value of the Nigerian Naira remained unchanged against the US Dollar yesterday at N1,615/$1.
Cryptocurrencies were mostly mixed on Wednesday, with Ethereum (ETH) gaining 2.4 per cent to trade at $2,536.86 and Litecoin (LTC) appreciating by 1.6 per cent to sell at $61.98.
Further, Dogecoin (DOGE) recorded a 1.1 per cent addition to quote at $0.1007 and Cardano (ADA) saw its value go up by 0.4 per cent to $0.3554.
On the flip side, profit-taking took out 3.0 per cent from Solana (SOL) to trade at $143.83, Ripple (XRP) dropped 0.3 per cent to sell at $0.5727, Binance Coin (BNB) went south by 0.2 per cent to $541.34, and Bitcoin (BTC) declined by 0.03 per cent to $59,399.20, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.