The value of the Naira depreciated against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Monday, November 17 by N5.60 or 0.39 per cent to close at N1,448.03/$1 versus the N1,442.43/$1 it was exchanged last Friday.
It was a similar story for the Nigerian currency against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday as it weakened by N10.27 to finish at N1,909.23/£1 compared with the preceding session’s rate of N1,898.96/£1, and lost 43 Kobo against the Euro to settle at N1,678.99/€1, in contrast to the previous session’s closing price of N1,678.56/€1.
However, the Naira appreciated against the Dollar during the session at the GTBank forex counter by N1 to trade at N1,447/$1 versus the preceding session’s rate of N1,448/$1, but tumbled against the greenback at the black market by N5 to sell for N1,460/$1 compared with the previous trading day’s value of N1,455/$1.
While there was a sharp recovery in total FX inflows, which surged by 91 per cent month-on-month to approximately $6.1 billion in October, for the past two weeks, the exchange rate has been facing pressures amidst reluctance by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to fund the market due to renewed foreign investor appetite for Nigerian assets.
In recent weeks, the apex bank FX injection has been minimal and erratic due to increasing FX inflows from foreign portfolio investors and exporters. Last week, the CBN sold $50 million to support the forex market liquidity.
Meanwhile, inflows into the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market declined by 25.23 per cent to $672.30 million, from $899.20 million in the previous week. FX inflows had peaked at $1.37 billion early in November.
While the Naira came under renewed strain, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased by 1.97 percentage points to 16.05 per cent in October from 18.02 per cent in September 2025.
A look at the crypto market showed that sentiment is pretty negative even as the US federal departments are set to begin publishing delayed economic figures after the record US shutdown. Closely watched payrolls figures will be released on Thursday.
Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, will also publish its third quarter results on Wednesday, which will be examined for signs of a bubble in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.
Ethereum (ETH) slumped by 6.3 per cent to $2,982.58, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 6.0 per cent to $0.4619, Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 5.4 per cent to $89,604.51, Ripple (XRP) fell by 4.7 per cent to $2.14, and Dogecoin (DOGE) declined by 4.3 per cent to $0.1540.
Further, Solana (SOL) went south by 3.7 per cent to $135.52, Litecoin (LTC) slipped by 3.2 per cent to $93.87, Binance Coin (BNB) lost 2.7 per cent to sell for $905.53, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.