CBN Boosts Retail SMIS With $349.34

The Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) of the foreign exchange market has received a boost of $349.34million from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

This was according to CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, who made the disclosure in a statement on Friday.

Okorafor revealed that the latest figures released by the apex bank were targeted primarily at ensuring liquidity in the market as well boosting the production sector.

Figures obtained from the CBN indicated that the interventions were meant to meet obligations in the agricultural, airlines, petroleum products and raw materials and machinery sectors.

The CBN director explained that the continued interventions by the Bank in the forex market, in addition to the recent currency swap with the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), would ease pressure on the country’s reserves.

He expressed confidence that the 16 Billion Renminbi (RMB) 16 billion ($2.5bn) deal would provide adequate local currency liquidity to Nigerian and Chinese industrialists and other businesses, stressing that the deal would protect Nigerian business men and women from the harsh effects of third currency fluctuations.

Speaking further, he explained that the Bank, in injecting funds into the market, was playing its role of safeguarding the international value of the legal tender currency through exchange rate stability. He said the Bank was also committed to diversifying the Nigerian economy from oil.

The Central Bank of Nigeria in its last SMIS injected the sum of $339.89, while also intervening in the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market to the tune of $210 million, comprising $100 million for the wholesale segment and $55 million for both the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).