Nigerian Naira remained unchanged against the Sterling Pounds and the United States Dollar at the official foreign exchange market on Monday.

At the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) manages foreign exchange section, the Naira traded at N416.22 and N546.53 against the United States Dollar and the Sterling Pounds, the same rates the local currency exchanged on March 31, 2021. Against the Euro common currency, the Naira traded at N459.9 to a Euro.

Naira remained under pressure at the unregulated foreign exchange market called the black market. The local currency exchanged at N580 to a United States Dollar.

Crude Oil

Oil prices fell on Monday morning during the Asian trading session following a report that the United Arab Emirates and the Iran-aligned Houthi group have reached an agreement to halt military operations at the Saudi-Yemeni border.

The Houthi rebel group in Yemen has been attacking Saudi Arabia and UAE oil facilities in the last few months. A temporary suspension of military operations is expected to boost global oil support, especially with the Russian crude oil supply limited due to sanctions.

Brent crude oil dropped to $105 per barrel as of 9:49 am Nigerian time on Monday. However, Nigeria’s crude oil retail at $110 a barrel in the global market, according to the data available on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s website.

Foreign Reserves

Nigeria’s foreign reserves dropped from $39.665 billion to $39.546 billion. The foreign reserves have been hovering around the same level for months despite the surge in oil prices, Nigeria’s main source of foreign revenue.

The drop in Nigeria’s foreign reserves is the reason for the persistent forex scarcity and the reduction in foreign spending on Naira cards. UBA, FirstBank and Zenith Bank have all halted international spending limits on their Naira cards.

Cryptocurrency Today

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies closed lower in the last 24 hours as weak sentiment following the US Federal Reserve rates hike and the Russia-Ukraine war continues to drag on the entire cryptocurrency space.

Bitcoin dropped to $46,203.20 a coin while Ethereum, Terra and Solana shed 0.26%, 1.33% and 3.36%, respectively. XRP and Cardano gained 0.28% and 3.90%, respectively.