Naira Falls to N1602.69/$1 at the IAFEM Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira fell to $1,602.69 in the American currency in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, May 2, at the same time as Bitcoin dropped by 0.1 per cent to sell at $96,336.57.

Data showed that the Nigerian currency weakened against the US Dollar during the session by 0.02 per cent or N3.20 after it traded at $1,599.49 in the previous trading session, which was on Wednesday, as the market closed on Thursday for Workers’ Day.

In the same vein, the domestic currency depreciated against the Pound Sterling in the same market segment by N3.64 to trade at £2,133.30 compared with Wednesday’s value of £2,129.66 and lost N5.92 on the Euro to sell for €1,820.24, in contrast to the previous trading day’s €1,814.32.

However, in the parallel market, the Nigerian currency appreciated against the greenback yesterday by N5 to quote at $1,605 versus the preceding session’s $1,610.

Now to the cryptocurrency market, news that the US and China are working on a trade deal swayed investors as it appears that the market is also skeptical that a deal will be reached this month.

According to a China state media post on social media, the US has proactively reached out to China through multiple channels, hoping to hold discussions on the tariff issue.

The speed and intensity of the tariffs the White House announced earlier this year panicked the market, leading to a significant drop in assets including cryptocurrencies.

So far, it is not clear what the eventual outcome will be but Litecoin (LTC) went down by 1.4 per cent to $86.81, Cardano (ADA) slumped by 0.7 per cent to $0.6981, Solana (SOL) declined by 0.5 per cent to $147.91, Dogecoin (DOGE) slid by 0.4 per cent to $0.1778.

But Ethereum (ETH) rose by 0.6 per cent to $1,826.96, Ripple (XRP) grew by 0.4 per cent to $2.20, and Binance Coin (BNB) expanded by 0.3 per cent to $597.94, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded at $1.00 each.