Monday, May 16th, 2022: At the official Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, the naira and the US dollar exchange rate closed at ₦421.5/$1, down 0.6 per cent from the previous day’s rate of N419/$1.
The naira got off to a bad start this week, plummeting to its lowest level in almost four months. At the I&E window on Monday, the exchange rate fell 60 basis points against the US dollar, closing at ₦421.5 per dollar.
Similarly, FX liquidity in the market reduced, with only $70.68 million in FX value changing hands on the official channel, down 58.27 per cent from the $169.38 million transacted the previous trading session.
In addition, on Tuesday morning, the exchange rate against the US dollar fell by 0.334 per cent on the peer-to-peer market, trading at a low of ₦600/$1 compared to ₦598/$1 the day before.
Meanwhile, the parallel market currency rate remained constant at ₦590 per dollar, up 0.17 per cent from ₦591/$1 in the previous trading session. According to information collected from BDCs in Nigeria, this is the case.
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Nigeria’s foreign reserve depreciated by 0.08 per cent on Friday, May 13th 2022, to $39.01 billion, down from $39.04 billion the day before. The fall in external reserves can be linked to the Central Bank’s ongoing involvement in the foreign exchange market to maintain the local currency’s stability.
On Monday, the crypto market was in the gloomy territory, with the market capitalization falling 4.1 per cent to $1.28 trillion as of 23:16 (WAT), following a 3.64 per cent drop in bitcoin’s price to $30,157.3.
Similarly, Ethereum, the second most valuable cryptocurrency, dropped 4.53 per cent to $2,045.67, while Solana and Uniswap dropped 5.91 per cent and 6.42 per cent to $55.2425 and $5.1, respectively.
On Tuesday morning, however, the bulls returned to the market, with the market capitalization rising 2.71 per cent in early trading hours, while bitcoin rose 2.11 per cent to offset some of the previous day’s losses.
