Naira Declines Further, Exchanges at N815/US$1

Naira to Dollar – The Nigerian Naira exchanged lower against its global counterparts across key foreign exchange segments on Tuesday as investors and businesses remained apprehensive.

At the interbank forex section managed by the central bank, the local currency was sold at N439.37 to a U.S. Dollar, a 0.35 kobo decline from N439.02 it was quoted on Monday.

Against the British Pound, the Naira also traded slightly lower at N507.8678 from N506.6291. Against, the Euro common currency, Naira dipped by 0.79 kobo to N436.9974.

Naira to Dollar Black Market

At the parallel market, popularly known as the black market, the Nigerian Naira extended its decline against the United States Dollar to N815 amid a surge in demand for the greenback.

Bureau De Change Operators (BDCs) across the country have attributed the development to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announcement that it was redesigning the nation’s notes to curb hoarding, and counterfeiting, among others.

Hoarders, largely believed to be politicians, are said to be converting their Naira holdings to U.S. Dollars to beat the CBN deadline and avoid penalties.

“There is always high demand and no supply. The dollar is just going up everyday. Importers are not getting dollars from banks. So, they are coming to us,” a BDC operator said.

Crude Oil

Oil prices gained in the early hours of Wednesday after U.S. Data showed crude oil inventories dropped last week, an indication that demand for the commodity is holding up despite high-interest rates.

According to American Petroleum Institute, crude inventories dropped by 6.5 million barrels in the week ended October 28, against the 400,000 barrel increase predicted by Reuters. The decline suggests a healthy demand for the commodity.

“Apart from the larger-than-expected draw in the U.S. inventory data, the optimism from unconfirmed news of China’s zero-COVID exit also supported oil’s upside momentum,” said CMC Markets analyst Tina Teng.

Brent crude oil, against which Nigerian oil is priced, appreciated by 54 cents, or 0.6%, to $95.19 a barrel 9:00 am Nigerian time. While the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 72 cents, or 0.8%, to $89.09 a barrel.

Cryptocurrency

After Elon Musk Twitter purchase, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies gained across the board through the weekend and continue to hold on to those gains despite weak demands for cryptocurrency assets.

Bitcoin, the world’s most dominant digital asset, remained fairly stable appreciating by 1.25% in the last 24 hours to N17.005 million a coin. Similarly, ETH, the token of the Ethereum protocol grew by 0.76% to N1.306 million.

While Binance coin (BNB) sustained its gain at N266,545 a coin.