The Naira halted two consecutive weeks of depreciation in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Monday, March 9, by remaining unchanged at N1,393.26/$1.
However, against the Pound Sterling, it further depreciated by N3.07 yesterday to trade at N1,863.06/£1 compared with last Friday’s value of N1,859.99/£1, and lost 65 Kobo against the Euro to close at N1,612.14/€1 versus the preceding session’s rate of N1,611.49/€1.
In the black market, the Nigerian Naira crashed against the Dollar yesterday by N10 to quote at N1,415/$1 compared with the N1,405/$1 it was exchanged in the previous trading session, and at the GTBank FX desk, it weakened by N9 to sell for N1,419/$1 versus the previous value of N1,410/$1.
The Naira’s performance comes as rising demand for foreign payments is outpacing supply, heightening worries that the domestic currency is entering the threshold it hasn’t traded in over two months.
Despite this, there appears to be a rise in foreign exchange inflows into the country’s currency market, with data from Coronation Merchant Bank showing that in the past week, FX inflows into the market have strengthened. As of the end of last week, total FX inflows into the Nigerian market settled at $1.26 billion, representing an increase of 17.76 per cent compared with $1.07 billion recorded in the previous week.
In the cryptocurrency market, tensions that have spurred higher energy prices and reignited inflation fears, which could potentially delay Federal Reserve rate cuts, eased after US President Donald Trump said the war with Iran could be over soon. This led to crypto and equity markets adding to gains following the comments.
Solana (SOL) appreciated by 5.6 per cent to $86.05, Ethereum (ETH) expanded by 5.5 per cent to $2,024.18, Bitcoin (BTC) added 4.6 per cent to sell for $68,802.86, Binance Coin (BNB) gained 4.1 per cent to trade at $639.78, and Cardano (ADA) jumped 3.3 per cent to $0.2582.
Further, Dogecoin (DOGE) grew by 2.9 per cent to $0.0914, Litecoin (LTC) went up by 2.8 per cent to $54.10, and Ripple (XRP) improved by 2.4 per cent to $1.37, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.