Naira crashes to N540 at black market, disparity now N130
The exchange rate between the naira and the US dollar closed at N411.67/$1, at the official Investors and Exporters window.
Naira depreciated further against the US dollar on Thursday, to close at N411.67/$1 compared to N411.5/$1 recorded at the close of trade on Wednesday, 8th September 2021, representing a 0.04% fall.
The exchange rate at the parallel market slumped to a new record on Thursday to close at N540/$1 compared to N535/$1 recorded in the previous trading session. This represents a 0.93% depreciation and further widens the gap between the black market rate and the official rate.
The persistent fall of the exchange rate at the parallel market has been attributed to demand pressure from Investors who couldn’t obtain forex from the banks. The latest depreciation at the black market takes the gap between the two forex markets to a massive N128.33.
Nigeria’s foreign reserves recorded a further boost of $102.45 million on Wednesday, 8th September to close at $34.69 billion, compared to $34.59 billion recorded a day before. The reserve position has gained $681.6 million so far in the month of September 2021.
Trading at the official NAFEX window
The exchange rate depreciated against the US dollar on Thursday 9th September 2021 to close at N411.67 to a dollar, representing a 0.04% fall compared to N411.5/$1 recorded in the previous trading day.
The opening indicative rate closed at N411.43/$1, a 15 kobo appreciation compared to N411.58/$1 recorded on Wednesday, 8th September 2021.
An exchange rate of N412.85 to a dollar was the highest rate recorded during intra-day trading before it settled at N411.67/$1, while it sold for as low as N400/$1 during intra-day trading.
Meanwhile, forex turnover at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window decreased by 61.2% on Thursday, 9th September 2021.
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According to data tracked by Nairametrics from FMDQ, forex turnover dropped from $295.39 million recorded on Wednesday to $114.68 million on Thursday 9th September 2021.
Cryptocurrency watch
The crypto market is still struggling to recover from the huge sell-offs recorded earlier in the week, where the world’s most valuable crypto asset slumped from over $50 to trade below $47. In the early hours of Friday however, the crypto market capitalisation had gained 1.17% to stand at $2.157 trillion.
Bitcoin has recorded a 0.6% gain to trade at $46,650.52 as Ethereum also gained 0.71% to trade at $3,446. In the same vein, XRP recorded a 4.22% gain to trade at $1.13531.
The President of El Salvador had announced the additional purchase of 150 BTC on Tuesday, as he stated that he is buying the dip. The president however blames the price crash of Bitcoin on the IMF, which has been spreading Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt about the country’s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender.
The Chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa has hit on the risk associated with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to the world economy. According to him, many criminals now play significant roles in crypto-currency markets, adding that virtual currencies had become their preferred medium of exchange.
Meanwhile, crypto peer-to-peer continues to grow in Nigeria despite the ban placed on banks to enable cryptocurrency transactions.
Crude oil price
The crude oil market started Friday’s trading session on a positive note as Brent Crude recorded a marginal growth of 0.69% to trade at $71.94 per barrel as of 6:00 am on Friday. In the same vein, West Texas Intermediate recorded a 0.56% growth to trade at $68.52 per barrel.
The Nigerian Crude oil, Bonny Light also moved in the positive territory with 0.35% growth to trade at $71.33%. However, OPEC Basket and natural gas both have recorded a marginal drop in price as of the time of writing this article.
Notably, OPEC Basket dipped by 0.22% to trade at $71.19, while Natural Gas declined by 0.1% to trade at $5.026.
Meanwhile, a recent report by SIA Energy cited by Bloomberg stated that the world’s biggest oil consumers have already exceeded pre-pandemic consumption levels. This is due to the opening up of most economies in the world and the increased vaccination, especially in China.
External reserve
Nigeria’s foreign reserve rose by $102.45 million to close at $34.69 billion on Thursday, 9th September 2021, compared to $34.59 billion recorded as of the previous day. The latest increase represents a 0.3% boost in the country’s foreign reserve.
The reserve has now gained $681.56 million in the month of September, reducing the year-to-date loss to about $674.44 million compared to $35.37 billion recorded as of 31st December 2020.
Meanwhile, recent reports have suggested that Nigeria’s foreign reserve position could grow as high as $40 billion by the end of September 2021, the recorded growth in the country’s foreign reserve position could be a positive step towards hitting the projected target.
