Thursday, 16th September 2021: The exchange rate between the naira and the US dollar closed at N413.07/$1, at the official Investors and Exporters window.
Naira fell against the US dollar on Thursday, to close at N413.07/$1, representing a 0.25% depreciation compared to N412.06/$1 recorded on Wednesday, 15th September 2021.
On the other hand, the exchange rate at the parallel market gained marginally on Thursday to close at N560/$1 compared to N562/$1 recorded in the previous trading session. This is according to information obtained from Bureau De Change operators, contacted by the Nairametrics team.
Nigeria’s foreign reserves recorded a further boost of $82.22 million on Wednesday, 15th September to close at $35.27 billion, compared to $35.19 billion recorded on Tuesday, 14th September 2021. The reserve position has now gained $1.25 billion so far in the month of September 2021.
Trading at the official NAFEX window
The exchange rate depreciated against the US dollar on Thursday, 15th September 2021 to close at N413.07 to a dollar, representing a 0.25% fall when compared to N412.06/$1 recorded in the previous trading day.
The opening indicative rate closed at N412.64/$1, representing an 18 kobo depreciation compared to N412.146/$1 recorded on Wednesday, 15th September 2021.
An exchange rate of N413 to a dollar was the highest rate recorded during intra-day trading before it settled at N413.07/$1, while it sold for as low as N404/$1 during intra-day trading.
Meanwhile, forex turnover at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window reduced significantly by 58.9% on Thursday, 16th September 2021.
According to data tracked by Nairametrics from FMDQ, forex turnover dropped from $308.92 million recorded on Wednesday to $126.96 million on Thursday 16th September 2021.
Cryptocurrency watch
The crypto market closed on Thursday on a bearish note with a 1.53% decline to close at $2.171 trillion, representing a $33.48 billion loss.
The world’s most popular crypto asset dipped 1.05% on Thursday to close at $47,646.32. Ethereum, in the same manner, lost 1.7% to close at $3,553.77, while XRP recorded a 3.31% decline in price to close at $1.08474.
The positive movement in the market was largely due to the gain recorded by the world’s most popular crypto asset, Bitcoin which gained 2.4% to close at $48,232.8. In the same vein, Ethereum recorded a 3.79% gain to close at $3,566.18. XRP gained 2.34% to close at $1.12189.
A recent report by major blockchain research and analytics firm, Chainalysis shows that the adoption rate of Bitcoin in Africa is the highest globally. According to the report, “Africa has the smallest cryptocurrency economy of any region we studied, having received $105.6 billion worth of cryptocurrency between July 2020 and June 2021, but despite that, it’s also one of the most dynamic and exciting.”
The report also highlighted that in addition to being the third-fastest growing cryptocurrency economy, Africa also has a bigger share of its overall transaction volume made up of retail-sized transfers than any other region at just over 7%, versus the global average of 5.5%.
Crude oil price
The crude oil market recorded a further boost on Thursday, building on the momentum recorded a day before as Brent Crude gained 0.28% to close at $75.67 per barrel, while WTI gained 0.04% to close at $72.64 per barrel.
Also, Bonny Light recorded a 2.87% increase in price to close at $74.22 per barrel, OPEC Basket gained 1.82% to close at $72.29, while Natural gas dropped by 0.94% to close at $5.285.
The rally in the crude oil market came on the back of the forecast on the demand for crude oil made by OPEC on Monday. According to OPEC, oil demand worldwide is expected to jump by around 4.2 million bpd in 2020 compared to 2021, representing an upward revision of 900,000 bpd compared to the previous month’s assessment.
Meanwhile, the total global oil demand remained unchanged at 96.7 million bpd in 2021 according to OPEC’s report. The body, however, revised Q4 2021 demand to 99.7 million bpd from 99.82 million bpd outlined in August 2021.
The CEO of Chevron, Mike Wirth in an interview with Bloomberg, has stated that global oil and gas prices will remain higher for longer due to the resistance of the companies to ramp up production. He highlighted that a major reason why the companies are not producing more is that investors are not on board with it.
External reserve
Nigeria’s foreign reserve recorded a boost of $82.22 million on Wednesday, 15th September 2021 to close at $35.27 billion compared to $35.19 billion recorded as of the previous day. The latest increase represents a 0.23% boost in the country’s foreign reserve. Also, recall that Nairametrics reported a similar growth of $80.15 million on Tuesday, 14th September.
The reserve has now gained $1.25 billion in the month of September, reducing the year-to-date loss to about $102.24 million compared to $35.37 billion recorded as of 31st December 2020.
The recent increase in the reserve position, which has continued for 16 consecutive days is in line with recent reports which had suggested that Nigeria’s foreign reserve position could grow as high as $40 billion by the end of September 2021.
Disclaimer: Nairametrics does not set or determine forex rates. The official NAFEX rates are obtained from the website of the FMDQOTC. Parallel market rates are obtained from various sources including online media outlets. The rates you buy or sell forex may be different from what is captured in this article.
