- Nigeria’s Naira surges against the U.S. Dollar at N730.
- Analysts say replacing currency notes had led to its depreciation.
- Cryptocurrency popularity has increased in the nation.
After two weeks of depreciation against foreign currencies, the naira has rebounded in the parallel market, where it was trading for around N730 to a dollar. On Thursday night (local time), bureaux de change (BDC) owners in Abuja reported that they were selling the naira for N740 to the dollar.
The amount reflects an N145 gain over the N885 it traded on Monday. However, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has insisted that the parallel market accounts for less than 1% of FX transactions and should never be utilized to set the value of the naira.
Analysts say the release of new 100, 200, 500, and 1,000 banknotes by the CBN caused the recent depreciation of the naira. President Muhammadu Buhari supports the central bank’s intention to replace outdated banknotes with new, redesigned banknotes. However, several Nigerian academics and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have voiced concerns about the scheme’s potential outcomes.
While the value of the Naira is on the rise, the same cannot be said about its CBDC counterpart. Though the government had high hopes that the CBDC would stimulate the economy and reduce inflation, the e-Naira has not lived up to its hype, according to some observers.
Coin Edition has previously stated that just 0.5% of Nigerians are actually using the e-naira. According to research, most Nigerians cannot differentiate between Bitcoin and the e-Naira, the country’s official digital currency. The revelation followed a 5% refund for motorized rickshaw owners when using e-naira.
However, that’s not the case with Nigerians and cryptocurrencies. According to the most recent research on cryptocurrency ownership and adoption by Finder, Nigeria has the second-highest percentage of Bitcoin owners in the world as of October, at 48%, up from 16.1% in the same month last year.
According to data compiled by Google Trends earlier this year, Nigerians ranked first out of the 15 surveyed countries for their interest in cryptocurrency, with a total search score of 371. This was based on the number of times the terms “cryptocurrency,” “invest in crypto,” and “buy crypto” were typed into Google.
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