The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), today injected $327,440,499.50 into the interbank retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) segment of the foreign exchange (Forex) market.
This is even as the apex bank offered CNY 69,707,333.39 in the spot and short-tenored forwards.
The figures provided by the bank on the interventions showed that the US dollar-denominated interventions were meant to meet demands in the agricultural and raw materials sectors.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications at the CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, stated that the Yuan sales were in line with the CBN’s monetary policy and meant were for the payment of Renminbi denominated Letters of Credit for agriculture as well as raw materials.
Okorafor added that the sales in the Chinese Yuan were through a combination of spot and short-tenored forwards, arising from bids received from authorized dealers.
Noting that availability of Renminbi was sure to ease pressure on the Nigerian foreign exchange market, the spokespman attributed the relative stability in the foreign exchange market to the sustained interventions of the apex bank and the sustained stability in crude oil prices in the international market.
He promised that the bank would remain committed to ensuring that all the sectors continued to enjoy access to the needed foreign exchange.
At the end of today’s transactions at the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment of the foreign exchange market, the Naira exchanged at N360 to $1 while CNY 1 exchanged for N53.35.
