The Naira ended a tumultuous month of May against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) with a 0.08 per cent or N1.24 loss on Friday, closing at N1,485.99/$1 compared with Thursday’s closing price of N1,484.75/$1, according to data obtained from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
This happened after the value of foreign exchange (FX) transactions at the official market decreased by 9.3 per cent or $21.90 million to $213.52 million from the $235.41 million executed in the previous session.
The Naira for most of the month was unstable, thus reversing most of the gains made in previous months on the back of improved dollar inflows.
The CBN Governor, Mr Yemi Cardoso, blamed the volatility on seasonal fluctuation during the post-Monetary Policy Committee (CBN) meeting press briefing last week in Abuja.
“Members further observed the recent volatility in the foreign exchange market, attributing this to seasonal demand, a reflection of the interplay between demand and supply freely functioning market system,” Mr Cardoso noted.
The Nigerian Naira witnessed a sharp decline of N353 the Pound Sterling in the spot market yesterday, trading at N1,877.92/£1 versus the N1,524.52/£1 it finished a day earlier, and against the Euro, it weakened by N301.53 to sell for N1,598.96/€1 versus N1,297.43/€1 quoted in the preceding session.
In the parallel market, the local currency lost N5 against the greenback during the trading session to quote at N1,490/$1 compared with the N1,485/$1 it was exchanged in the preceding trading session.
Meanwhile, the digital currency market was bearish on Friday, with Bitcoin (BTC) dropping 2.7 per cent to close at $67,305.59 as an inflation gauge in the US rose.
The personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy costs, which the US Federal Reserve prefers, increased just 0.2 per cent for the period. On an annual basis, core PCE was up 2.8 per cent, or 0.1 percentage point higher than the estimate.
Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 2.6 per cent to sell at $0.1583, Solana (SOL) fell by 2.5 per cent to trade at $165.91, Litecoin (LTC) shrank by 1.8 per cent to finish at $83.34, Ripple (XRP) slumped by 1.7 per cent to $0.5163, Cardano (ADA) shed 1.3 per cent to settle at $0.4474, Binance Coin (BNB) plunged by 1.2 per cent to $592.41, and Ethereum (ETH) declined by 0.5 per cent to $3,778.80, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
–By Adedapo Adesanya