The Naira closed 5 Kobo or 0.01 per cent stronger than the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) segment on Friday, August 8, trading at N1,534.29/$1 compared with the N1,534.34/$1 it was priced on Thursday.
However, it depreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N1.31 to settle at N2,060.34/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N2,059.03/£1 and lost 96 Kobo against the Euro to quote at N1,786.60/€1 versus Thursday’s closing price of N1,787.56/€1.
At the parallel market, the Nigerian Naira gained N5 against the Dollar yesterday to sell for N1,560/$1 compared with the N1,565/$1 it was traded a day earlier.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stepped up effort to ensure transparency as the apex bank officially concluded the forensic audit into undelivered forward FX transactions and refunded the value of all unfulfilled and unvalidated deals to banks in Naira.
The CBN also announced plans to pursue civil, administrative, or criminal sanctions against parties found to have breached FX rules, following the conclusion of the forensic audit, noting that the findings revealed extensive irregularities, including mismatches in beneficiary identities, exaggerated FX requests, use of incorrect or blank Form M submissions, and approvals for non-permissible imports.
The banked noted that certain transactions were based on vague or false documentation, while others involved companies that lacked authorisation for the items they sought to import.
In the cryptocurrency market, there were largely positive movements as the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) clarification around liquid staking continued to lift asset prices.
Ethereum (ETH) rose by 6.2 per cent to $4,164.59, Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped by 5.5 per cent to $0.2356, Solana (SOL) appreciated by 2.9 per cent to $180.56, Litecoin (LTC) grew by 2.8 per cent to $125.20, Binance Coin (BNB) soared by 2.1 per cent to $806.62, and Cardano (ADA) surged by 1.2 per cent to $0.8060.
On the flip side, euphoria from recent wins in the court case of Ripple (XRP) waned as it dropped 0.7 per cent to sell at $3.31, and Bitcoin (BTC) moderated by 0.1 per cent to $116,900.81, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.