By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira crashed by 5.1 per cent or N74.90 on the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday to trade at N1,533.99/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N1,459.09/$1, renewing worries that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may need to boost its foreign exchange (FX) interventions.
Data showed that there was a small drop in supply as the turnover by 5.6 per cent or $16.28 million to $272.86 million from the $289.14 million achieved a day earlier.
However, the local currency improved its value against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N5.94 to trade at N1,884.53/£1 versus N1,890.47/£1, and gained N6.70 against the Euro to quote at N1,618.85/€1 versus N1,625.55/€1.
Recent policy moves by the CBN, which had earlier yielded positive results, have begun to lose momentum. With the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) set to hold its meeting next week, this could spur the apex bank to announce fresh moves to prop the FX market.
At the last meeting, the committee, spearheaded by CBN Governor, Mr Yemi Cardoso, reiterated its position to focus on its core objectives which includes implementing measures to tackle structural factors to complement monetary efforts in anchoring inflation expectations and promoting overall price stability in the economy.
In the parallel market, the Naira lost N10 against the American Dollar during the trading session to close at N1,530/$1, in contrast to the N1,520/$1 it was traded in the preceding trading day.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was mixed on Thursday even as positive data from the US eased concerns about higher interest rates, with Dogecoin (DOGE) down by 3.5 per cent to sell at $0.1503.
Further, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 2.0 per cent to $571.06, Ethereum (ETH) fell by 1.9 per cent to $2,945.92, Ripple (XRP) declined by 0.3 per cent to $0.5162, and Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 0.3 per cent to $82.14.
But Solana (SOL) jumped by 1.1 per cent to $163.51, Cardano (ADA) improved by 1.0 per cent to $0.4645, and Bitcoin (BTC) appreciated by 0.3 per cent to $65,685.05, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.