Naira Appreciates by 0.16% at Official Market as Festive Activities Wind Down

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The value of the Naira appreciated against the US Dollar on Friday, December 27, in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).

Specifically, the domestic currency gained 0.16 per cent or N2.15 to close at N1,538.50/$1 in the official window, compared with the previous session’s N1,540.65/$1.

The official market closed on Wednesday (December 25) and Thursday (December 26) for the holidays but resumed yesterday, with two more trading sessions left in the year.

After the festive activities, December activities are winding down and the influx of FX from foreigners in the country will start reducing, with more demand for the Dollar set to occur in the coming days.

At the spot market on Friday, the local currency depreciated against the British Pound Sterling by N1.31 to wrap the session at N1,934.22/£1 compared with Tuesday’s closing price of N1,932.91/£1 and against the Euro, it lost N5.51 to sell for N1,605.47/€1, in contrast to the previous session’s N1,599.96/€1.

A look at the parallel market showed that the Nigerian Naira maintained stability against the greenback yesterday at N1,640/$1.

The Naira for most of December trended upward since the CBN-backed Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS) launched on December 2.

The platform which set new guidelines for authorised Foreign Exchange (FX) dealers made it harder to sell at inflated rates to avoid CBN’s punishment.

Last week, to further alleviate pressure on the official market, the apex bank granted Bureaux de Change (BDC) operators temporary access to NAFEM, which is the official market, as part of efforts to further strengthen the Naira in the currency market.

In the cryptocurrency market, there was a mixed outcome as the landscape cooled ahead of next year’s promises, including a more relaxed crypto environment in the US.

Litecoin (LTC) declined by 3.4 per cent to $99.59, Solana (SOL) shed 1.4 per cent to sell at $185.53, Bitcoin (BTC) slid by 1.00 per cent to $94,327.94, Ethereum (ETH) slumped by 0.4 per cent to $3,337.53, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) fell by 0.06 per cent to $0.9983, and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) lost 0.01 per cent to settle at $0.9998.

On the flip side, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 0.9 per cent to $0.3159, Ripple (XRP) gained 0.2 per cent to quote at $2.16, Cardano (ADA) also improved by 0.2 per cent to $0.8076 and Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 0.06 per cent to $696.24.