The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has boosted the operations of the inter-bank foreign exchange market with about $543.22 million and CNY63.21 million after two days interventions.
According to the bank statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Friday, that the interventions on Thursday and Friday were in the wholesale as well as the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segments of the FOREX window.
At Thursday’s trading, CBN said it offered about $100 million in wholesale interventions, in addition to another $55 million allocated the SMEs FOREX window.
Also, the invisibles’ window, which caters for customers requiring foreign exchange for business/personal travel allowances, tuition fees for schools and medical bills, received about $55 million.
On Friday, the bank said a fresh $323.22 million was injected in the interbank retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales, apart from about CNY 63.21 million (Chinese Yuan) sold in the spot and short-tenored forwards, arising from bids received from authorized dealers.
CBN spokesperson, Isaac Okorafor, said the interventions were a further demonstration of the bank’s commitment to maintain the country’s external reserves to safeguard the international value of the Naira in line with the Bank’s mandate.
Mr Okorafor said the bank’s management of the FOREX market had entrenched transparency in the market and continued to strengthen the value of the naira against other major currencies.
On the sale of Chinese Yuan (Renminbi), Mr. Okorafor said this was in line with the CBN guidelines, which stipulate that it would be for the payment of Renminbi denominated Letters of Credit for agriculture as well as raw materials.
The availability of the Chinese currency, Mr Okorafor said, would ease the pressure on the Nigerian foreign exchange market due to increased demand.
He attributed the relative stability in the foreign exchange market to the interventions by the CBN as well as the sustained increase in crude oil prices in the international market in recent times.
The CBN spokesperson further pledged that the bank would ensure customers in all sectors of the foreign exchange market are guaranteed access to required foreign exchange.
At the close of trading on Friday, Naira maintained its value with $1 still exchanging for N360 at the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment of the foreign exchange market, while CNY 1 exchanged for N53.17.