The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday and Friday, injected a total sum of $543.22 million and CNY 63.21 million into the inter-bank foreign exchange market.
At Thursday’s trading session, the apex bank offered the sum of $100 million as wholesale interventions and allocated the sum of $55 million each to the Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs and invisibles windows customers respectively.
Also on Friday, the bank injected the sum of $323.22 million into the interbank retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) and sold CNY 63.21 million in the spot and short-tenored forwards, arising from bids received from authorized dealers
The bank’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, who confirmed the figures, restated the bank’s commitment to maintaining the country’s external reserves and sustaining the national currency’s (Naira’s) exchange rate value against other foreign currencies’ rates.
According to him, the bank’s management of the forex market has continued to ensure transparency in the market and making access to foreign exchange easier for users.
Okorafor also explained that the sale of Chinese Yuan (Renminbi), was in line with the CBN guidelines and specifically supplied for the payment of Renminbi denominated Letters of Credit for agriculture as well as raw materials.
He also noted that one of the major factors that had helped the apex bank to sustain the relative stability in the foreign exchange market had been the increase in crude oil prices in the international market over the past months.
The bank’s spokesperson assured forex users that the Bank would continue to ensure that their needs were met across all segments of the forex market.
Meanwhile, the Naira exchanged at N360 to a $1 at the Bureau de Change, BDC, segment of the forex market while the CNY 1 exchanged at N53.17 at the end of trading on Friday.
