By Adedapo Adesanya
The local currency depreciated against the US Dollar by N4.67 or 0.31 per cent in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) to exchange at N1,490/$1 on Monday, June 24 compared with the preceding session’s N1,485.53/$1, extending a weakening cycle that commenced a weak ago.
However, the domestic currency appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N12.57 to trade at N1,871.52/£1 versus last Friday’s closing rate of N1,884.09/£1 and improved its value against the Euro in the same space by N38.27 to quote at N1,552.97/€1, in contrast to the previous day’s value of N1,591.24/€1.
The Naira has seen volatile levels this year even with policies from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to strengthen the FX market.
In recent weeks, the apex bank has also done a heavy mop-up of Naira liquidity through regular bond sales and Dollar inflows from foreign lenders to stabilize the market.
For instance, the country obtained about $925 million from Afreximbank, another tranche of crude oil-backed $3.3 billion prepayment facility intended to boost the supply of FX.
Furthermore, the World Bank approved $2.25 billion in funding to support the nation’s economic reforms which is expected to boost FX liquidity.
But data obtained from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the value of forex transactions carried out on Monday waned by 21.4 per cent or $41.50 million to $152.00 million from the $193.50 million recorded in the last trading session.
Business Post reports that the Naira suffered a significant loss against the Dollar in the parallel market on Monday. going down by N15 to sell for N1,505/$1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,490/$1.
As for the cryptocurrency market, it was mixed yesterday with altcoins seeing fierce competition as more investors tap meme coins as an alternative.
Solana (SOL) jumped by 7.8 per cent to $136.11, Cardano (ADA) grew by 2.5 per cent to $0.3789, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 2.2 per cent to $0.1235, and Ripple (XRP) expanded by 0.6 per cent to $0.4783.
Conversely, Bitcoin (BTC) slid by 2.4 per cent to $61,343.20, Litecoin (LTC) declined by 1.5 per cent to $70.74, Ethereum (ETH) slumped by 0.5 per cent to $3,390.74, and Binance Coin (BNB) shed 0.1 per cent to trade at $574.41, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.