The Naira extended its loss against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Wednesday, November 12 on continued FX pressure.
Data showed that the value of the Nigerian currency depleted against the greenback by N4.37 or 0.3 per cent to N1,443.08/$1 from the N1,438.71/$1 it was exchanged a day earlier.
The domestic currency lost a further N5.75 against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session to sell for N1,901.40/£1 versus the previous day’s N1,895.65/£1, and declined against the Euro by N5.07 to close at N1,673.97/€1, in contrast to Tuesday’s closing price of N1,663.24/€1.
The Naira depreciated against the Dollar yesterday by N3 at the GTBank forex counter to settle at N1,447/$1 versus the preceding session’s rate of N1,444/$1, but at the parallel market, it was unchanged at N1,455/$1.
The Nigerian currency has been on a free-fall since the beginning of the week. So far, the exchange rate has lost N6/$ against the Dollar in the spot market in the last three days.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) made a intervention of $5 million FX sales to banks but it was considered a red signal that demand has outpaced total FX supply at the official window.
The apex bank FX injection has been minimal and erratic due to increasing FX inflows from foreign portfolio investors and exporters. But past two weeks have been different. FX inflow into currency market has fallen from peaked of $1.37 billion to $899 million.
As for the crypto market, it witnessed a recovery after US President Donald Trump signed a short-term funding bill to reopen the government late Wednesday after a majority of the US House of Representatives voted in favor of ending the record-breaking 42-day shutdown.
The government looked set to remain shut down for the foreseeable future before a group of Senate Democrats and the majority of Senate Republicans voted in favor of the roughly 3-month funding measure, which gave support to the markets, including cryptos.
Ripple (XRP) rose by 4.7 per cent to $2.49, Ethereum (ETH) jumped by 2.8 per cent to $3,535.36, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 2.3 per cent to $0.1756, Binance Coin (BNB) improved by 1.2 per cent to $964.82, and Cardano (ADA) gained by 1.0 per cent to finish at $0.5643.
Further, Litecoin (LTC) grew by 0.9 per cent to $100.75, Bitcoin (BTC) expanded by 0.3 per cent to $103,493.71, and Solana (SOL) went up by 0.2 per cent to $155.39, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.