CBN Shores up Forex Market With $210m
Focused on sustaining forex availability to meet customers’ needs in various segments of the market, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday injected another $210 million into the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market.
The breakdown from the apex bank showed that $100 million went to authorized dealers in the wholesale segment of the market with the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment offered $55 million.
Also allocated the sum of $55 million are customers seeking to access foreign exchange for invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), among others.
CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Isaac Okorafor said the apex Bank would continue to intervene in the interbank foreign exchange market in line with its desire to sustain liquidity in the market and maintain stability.
Okorafor, who confirmed the figures to the media, expressed confidence that steps so far taken by the CBN in the management of forex have been yielding expected results, as shown by the country’s declining import bills and rising foreign reserves that hit the $46 billion mark as at Friday, March 9, 2018.
Just last Friday, the CBN injected about $355.43 million into the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) even as the Naira maintained its stability in the FOREX market.
The Naira exchanged at an average of N360/$1 in the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment of the market as at Monday, March 12, 2018.
