By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira regained strength against the American Dollar on Friday in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), which is the official foreign exchange (FX) market in the country.
Data obtained by Business Post showed that the local currency improved its value on the US Dollar yesterday by 2.4 per cent or N36.66 million to exchange at N1,497.33/$1 compared with Thursday’s closing price of N1,533.99/$1.
However, the Nigerian currency weakened against the Pound Sterling in the spot market during the session by N52.47 to wrap the final trading day of this week at N1,937.00/£1 versus the preceding day’s N1,884.53/£1 and shed N43.98 against the Euro to trade at N1,662.83/€1 versus N1,618.85/€1.
The value of forex trades at the official market yesterday was lower than the previous day by 69.4 per cent or $189.36 million to $83.50 million from $272.86 million a day earlier.
The market over the week saw volatile closings at both ends of the market, raising worries ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) set to hold on Monday and Tuesday next week (May 20-21).
The Governor of the CBN, Mr Yemi Cardoso, said that the members of the committee would do whatever is necessary to get a handle on the country’s persistent inflation signalling more hikes that could tell on the local currency as inflation jumped for the 16th straight month to 33.69 per cent in April.
Since the emergence of Mr Cardoso, the interest rate has increased twice by 600 basis points from 18.75 per cent to 24.75 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Naira gained against the Dollar in the parallel market on Friday by N10 to trade at N1,520/$1 compared with the preceding day’s rate of N1,530/$1.
In a related development, the cryptocurrency market recovered yesterday, with Solana (SOL) appreciating by 2.6 per cent to trade at $172.86, after benefitting from multiple catalysts, including bustling meme coin and DeFi activity, upcoming network upgrades, and increasing interest in the ecosystem.
Ethereum (ETH) jumped by 2.5 per cent to $3,105.10, Bitcoin (BTC) traded at $67,131.68 after a 1.5 per cent growth, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated 1.4 per cent to $0.1552, and Cardano (ADA) increased by 1.1 per cent to $0.4819.
In addition, Litecoin (LTC) grew by 0.9 per cent to sell at $84.37, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 0.7 per cent to $580.19, and Ripple (XRP) expanded by 0.4 per cent to $0.5234, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) sold flat at $1.00, respectively.