The Naira depreciated further against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Monday, December 8 by N1.43 or 0.09 per cent to close at N1,451.86/$1 compared with last Friday’s closing price of N1,450.43/$1.
The Nigerian Naira also weakened against the Euro in the official market during the session by N1.96 to settle at N1,689.17/€1 versus the preceding session’s value of N1,688.74/€1, but gained N70 Kobo against Pound Sterling to sell for N1,934.75/£1 compared with the previous trading day’s rate of N1,935.45/£1.
At the GTBank forex counter, the value of the Nigerian currency crashed by N3 against the Dollar yesterday to trade at N1,458/$1 versus last Friday’s N1,455/$1 and closed flat in the black market at N1,465/$1.
The local currency faces pressures from increasing year-end Dollar demand, stoked by imports and some multinationals repatriating US Dollars abroad.
Intervention from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the face of steady dollar Demand and inflows from Detty December festivities have helped dilute the pressure, but they remain.
The Naira is expected to trade within a band of N1,443-N1,450/$1 in the spot market this week, buoyed by improved FX interventions by the apex bank.
The CBN came to market to support the Naira with $100 million in FX sales to banks and other authorised dealers with the aim of strengthening aggregate US Dollar liquidity.
A look at the cryptocurrency market showed that prices were down on Monday as participants remain pessimistic after one of the sector’s ugliest November performances since 2018, even as new data showed Europe led the month’s sell pressure by a wide margin.
The broader financial market held its recent rebound, though liquidity remained thin ahead of Wednesday’s US Federal Reserve decision, with Solana (SOL) down by 2.4 per cent to $132.50.
Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 1.8 per cent to $887.34, Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 1.7 per cent to $2.04, Bitcoin (BTC) fell by 1.6 per cent to $90,179.65, Dogecoin (DOGE) slid by 1.5 per cent to $0.1400, Litecoin (LTC) weakened by 1.0 per cent to $82.82, Ethereum (ETH) dropped by 0.8 per cent to $3,111.37, and Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 0.7 per cent to $0.4258, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.