The Nigerian Naira improved in exchange value against the Pounds Sterling and the European common currency, the Euro at the official foreign exchange window of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The local currency gained 1.06% or N5.7835 from N542.3603 it exchanged against the Pounds Sterling on Thursday to N536.5768. Against the Euro, the Naira gained 0.61% or N2.7461 from N453.0279 it was sold for a Euro on Thursday to N450.2818.

However, against the United States Dollar, the Nigerian Naira remained unchanged at N416.08 per U.S Dollar.

Naira to Dollar at the Black Market

In the unregulated parallel market popularly known as the black market, the Naira remained excessively low to its counterparts. In Ibadan, the local currency was exchanged at N580 for a U.S. Dollar on Monday, April 25, 2022.

Crude Oil

Continous lockdown in China dragged on global oil prices on Monday to extend last week’s decline. Brent crude oil, against which Nigerian oil is priced shed $4.63 to $102.02 per barrel in the early hours of Monday. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil dipped by $4.11 to $97.96 a barrel.

Crude oil prices declined on concerns that the rising number of COVID-19 cases in China could hurt demand for the commodity given China is the world’s largest importer of crude oil. On Monday, the Chinese government was reported to have started erecting fences around buildings that house COVID-19 victims in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.

Several other parts of the world’s second-largest economy were said to be under lockdown restrictions. This, investors fear could drag on demand for crude oil and rein in prices despite the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrencies extended their declines on Monday following Jerome Powell’s hawkish comments on interest rates. The Chairman of the Federal Reserves had suggested a 50% rate increase in the next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting to curb escalating inflation rate. The U.S inflation rates jumped to a record-high of 8.5% in April to put pressure on the Fed to act or watch high prices erode recent progress in labour market.

Bitcoin extended declined by 3.23% in the last 24 hours to $38,480.85 a coin. Ether, Ethereum token shed 4.64% to $2,811.60 while Terra, XRP, Solana (SOL), Ada, Avalanche (AVAX) and Polkadot (DOT) lost 2.80%, 8.79%, 6.46%, 6.56%, 7.10% and 8.67% to $88.83, $0.648876, $95.11, $0.832448, $67.67 and $17.21 a coin.

The decline was broad-based and expected to extend further going forward. This is because capital inflow into the cryptocurrency space decline with an increase in interest rates, especially from the institutional investors that have been sustaining the unregulated space in the last 15 months.