By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira recorded a 3.3 per cent or N52.80 appreciation on the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Monday, December 9 to close at N1,552.50/$1 compared with the preceding session’s rate of N1,605.30/$1.
However, on the Pound Sterling, the local currency depreciated during the trading day by N1.32 to wrap the session at N1,961.93/£1 compared with last Friday’s value of N1,960.61/£1 and against the Euro, the Nigerian currency slumped by 57 Kobo to trade at N1,623.84/€1, in contrast to the preceding session’s rate of N1,624.41/€1.
The mixed outcome occurred amid a decline in the value of FX transactions in the spot by 35.9 per cent or $62.83 million to $112.32 million from the $175.15 million recorded last Friday, according to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
Last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launched the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS), an electronic platform introduced to tackle speculation and improve transparency in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market.
In a circular announcing the EFEMS platform, the apex bank explained that it facilitates spot foreign exchange transactions between the Naira and the US Dollar.
The platform, operated through Bloomberg’s BMatch system, requires a minimum trade value of $100,000, with incremental trade sizes of $50,000.
CBN stated that the platform automatically matches buy and sell orders, promoting fairness and efficiency in FX trading.
But in the parallel market, the Nigerian Naira weakened against the Dollar yesterday by N40 to quote at N1,620/$1, in contrast to the previous trading day’s value of N1,580/$1.
In the cryptocurrency market, the bears took control as analysts and traders warned of short-term selling pressure amid an overheated market after a November rally.
Also, internet giant, Google, announced benchmark tests on its new Willow quantum computing chip — which led to market concerns about what it meant for crypto privacy and wallet security.
Cardano slumped by 12.3 per cent to trade at $1.01, Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 11.1 per cent to sell at $113.77, Ripple (XRP) dropped 9.9 per cent to $2.21, Dogecoin (DOGE) slid by 7.7 per cent to $0.4099, and Solana (SOL) depreciated by 5.6 per cent to sell at $217.45.
Further, Ethereum (ETH) decreased by 4.5 per cent to $3,731.16, Binance Coin (BNB) dipped by 3.2 per cent to sell for $694.82, and Bitcoin (BTC) went down by 3.7 per cent to quote at $97,243.61, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.