The Naira extended its positive run against the US Dollar on Wednesday, January 7, in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) as its value firmed up by 81 Kobo or 0.06 per cent to N1,418.26/$1, in contrast to the preceding session’s N1,419.07/$1.
It was not a different story for the domestic currency against the Pound Sterling in the official market as it improved by N3.63 to trade at N1,913.66/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,917.20/£1 and chalked up N3.09 on the Euro to close at N1,657.52/€1 versus Tuesday’s N1,660.31/€1.
At the GTBank forex desk, the Nigerian Naira gained N10 against the greenback yesterday to settle at N1,425/$1 versus the previous day’s N1,435/$1 and closed flat at the black market at N1,470/$1.
The Nigerian currency has continued to perform better at the spot market amid more supportive environment, though analysts have cautioned that global oil market weakness and rising domestic insecurity could hamper the trajectory.
Recent reforms in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market are beginning to yield results with CardinalStone pointing to improved price discovery, better transparency, and stronger FX liquidity as factors that are helping to stabilize the currency.
“We expect Naira to appreciate to a range of N1,350.00/$ – N1,450.00/$ in 2026, supported by improving fundamentals,” according to CardinalStone in a January forecast.
On his part, the Senior Economist at Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Mr Yemi Kale, pointed out that the Naira could trade between N1,313/$1 to a worst level of N1,650/$1 reflecting varying assumptions around oil prices, foreign-exchange (FX) inflows, inflation trends, and policy consistency.
He warned policymakers against weak oil prices or production disruptions reducing FX inflows, deepening FX liquidity crisis and forced currency devaluation.
“We expect the Naira to continue trading in line with prevailing market demand and supply conditions, supported by improving external reserves position,” Anchoria Securities Limited said in a note.
Meanwhile, foreign reserves climbed to $45.623 billion following fresh inflows from investors that participated at the OMO bills auction organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday.
In the cryptocurrency market, there was cooling in the early-January crypto rebound even as broader risk backdrop stayed supportive with a rally in global government bonds and growing bets on Federal Reserve rate cuts, with Ripple (XRP) further down by 6.4 per cent to $2.11.
Further, Ethereum (ETH) slipped by 4.2 per cent to trade at $3,111.31, Cardano (ADA) shrank by 4.1 per cent to $0.3935, Binance Coin (BNB) depreciated by 3.6 per cent to $881.38, and Dogecoin (DOGE) depleted by 3.1 per cent to finish at $0.1432.
In addition, Bitcoin (BTC) went down by 2.8 per cent to finish at $90,015.06, Litecoin (LTC) decreased by 2.7 per cent to close at $80.72, and Solana (SOL) lost 2.6 per cent to sell $135.12, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.