By Adedapo Adesanya
The value of the Naira plunged against the US Dollar in the official FX window, the Investors and Exporters (I&E), on Friday, May 26, the last trading day before a new government is sworn in on Monday (May 29).
Data from FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the local currency shrank by 84 Kobo or 0.18 per cent during the session to close at N464.51/$1 versus the preceding session’s N463.67$1.
It was observed that the value of forex transactions in the spot market stood at $144.72 million on Friday, $12.84 million or 8.1 per cent lower than the $157.56 million recorded a day earlier.
A new government is expected to be sworn in on Monday, and expectations are high that the incoming president will push for the harmonization of foreign-exchange rates.
According to Mr Aminu Gwadabe, president of the Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), this is encouraging currency substitution and a preference for Dollars,
Meanwhile, in the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) window of the foreign exchange market, the local currency gained N4 against the American currency yesterday to sell at N775/$1 versus Thursday’s value of N779/$1.
In the parallel market, the domestic currency was strengthened against its American counterpart by N2 to N770/$1 versus the previous day’s rate of N772/$1.
In the interbank segment, the Naira appreciated against the Pound Sterling by 98 Kobo to close at N570.95/£1, in contrast to the previous day’s rate of N571.93/£1 while it gained N2.16 on the Euro to finish at N495.41/€1 versus N497.57/€1.
In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) traded in the $26,000 territory as it is widely expected that a deal will be reached ahead of a June deadline, which has been extended, with the two sides – Democrats and Republicans – yet to reach an agreement going into the Memorial Day weekend.
BTC, which is the most valued crypto by market capitalisation, added 1.1 per cent to sell at $26,747.55, Ethereum (ETH) rose by 1.4 per cent to $1,832.05, Ripple (XRP) jumped by 3.4 per cent to $0.4677, Litecoin (LTC) rose by 2.6 per cent to $87.69, and Cardano (ADA) added by 1.9 per cent to trade at $0.3918.
Also, Solana (SOL) increased by 1.1 per cent to $19.44, Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 0.9 per cent to $307.35, and Dogecoin (DOGE) went up by 0.3 per cent to $0.0710, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat at $1.00 each.
