The Nigerian currency, the naira, has appreciated again against the US dollar in the official foreign exchange market.

Data from FMDQ, the trading platform, showed that the naira ended the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Monday, September 9, 2024, at N1,580.46/$1.

The new exchange rate is a 0.81% or N12.86 improvement compared to Friday’s closing rate of N1,593.32/$1.

The positive outcome comes despite the decline in forex turnover for the trading session by $47.8 million or 19.5% to $197.37 million from $245.17 million.

However, in the spot market, the Nigerian Naira closed flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro at the official market during the session at N2,144.61/£1 and N1,804.99/€1, respectively.

In the parallel market, also known as the black market, the Nigerian currency appreciated against the greenback on Monday by N5 to sell for N1,650/$1 versus last Friday’s exchange rate of N1,655/$1.

CBN intervenes in the market

Meanwhile, last Friday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) injected more supplies into the forex markets to strengthen the naira.

Also, the CBN approved the sale of $20,000 each to an unspecified number of eligible Bureau De Change (BDC) operators at N1,580 to a Dollar.

In a circular issued by the Acting Director of Trade and Exchange Department of the apex bank, Dr Williams Kanaya said: “This is to inform the BDC operators and the general public that we are providing more liquidity into the market.

“To this end, the CBN has approved the sale of 20,000 dollars to each eligible BDC operator at the rate of N1,580/dollar. This is to meet the demand for invisible transactions."

New platforms identified as threats to naira

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that Nigerians identified the emergence of two cryptocurrency platforms as the reason for the recent fall of the naira.

The earlier decline of the naira was attributed to alleged market manipulation by Binance.

Nigerians have blamed the latest depreciation on new crypto exchange platforms, namely BYBIT and BITGET.