Naira Firms Against Dollar in NAFEM, Gains in Official and Black Markets

By Adedapo Adesanya The value of the Naira continued to firm against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange

The value of the Naira firmed against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Wednesday, appreciating by N11.96 or 0.79 per cent.

The Naira closed at N1,510.72/$1 on Wednesday, compared with Tuesday’s closing rate of N1,522.68/1$.

The recent pressure on the market eased across majorly regulated channels with recent policy moves by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) creating more trading transparency and ethical practices.

Equally, in the official market, the local currency appreciated against the Pound Sterling yesterday by N27.81 to wrap the session at N1,871.77/£1 versus the preceding day’s N1,899.58/£1 and against the Euro, the Naira improved its value by N24.46 to trade at N1,568.58/€1, in contrast to the previous session’s N1,593.04/€1.

In the same vein, the Nigerian currency gained N20 against the greenback in the black market at midweek to quote at N1,620/$1 compared with the preceding day’s rate of N1,640/$1.

A look at the cryptocurrency market indicated that most of the tokens rose as the Federal Reserve kept its benchmark fed funds rate range steady at 4.25 per cent-4.50 per cent, in line with market expectations.

The US central bank said inflation remains “somewhat elevated and this initially dropped Bitcoin and other coins but rose as Chairman Jerome Powell gave his post-meeting press conference.

Litecoin (LTC) grew by 12.3 per cent to sell at $128.55, Bitcoin (BTC) jumped by 2.6 per cent to $105,190.69, Solana (SOL) increased by 2.5 per cent to $238.74, Cardano expanded by 1.8 per cent to trade at $0.9621, Ethereum (ETH) appreciated by 1.6 per cent to $3,190.50, Ripple (XRP) grew by 0.14 per cent to $3.12, and Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 0.11 per cent to $0.332.

However, the price of Binance Coin (BNB) depreciated yesterday by 0.1 per cent to settle at $677.80, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.