CBN Lifts FOREX Market With $462m

As part of its sustained drive to deepen flexibility in the foreign exchange market, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday injected the total sum of $462 million into various segments of the market.

The CBN in a statement by Isaac Okorafor, its Acting Director, Corporate Communications, noted that the apex bank was pleased with the positive impact its current foreign exchange management was having on the manufacturing sector, agriculture and economic activities across the country.

A breakdown of the forex intervention figures obtained from the Bank indicates that the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) received the largest allocation of $267 million.

Also, the apex bank offered sum of $100 million as wholesale interventions, while the sum of $50 million was allocated to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) forex window.

Business/Personal Travel Allowances, tuition and medical fees, among other invisibles, received the sum of $45 million.

Mr. Okorafor said the CBN was encouraged by growth in the non-oil sector, particularly agriculture.

He noted that the apex bank will not renege in its bid to ensure stability in the inter-bank Forex market as well as ensuring the convergence between the exchange rates at the Nigeria Autonomous Foreign Exchange (NAFEX) and the Bureau de Change segments of the market.

According to him, the CBN will continue to ensure proper surveillance of the forex market to guard against any sharp practices by participants and uphold transparency of the process.

It will be recalled that the CBN in the last round of forex intervention in the inter-bank market on July 24, 2017, injected a total sum of $195 million to the wholesale, SMEs and invisibles segments of the market.

Re-echoing the optimism of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, at the last Monetary Policy briefing on Tuesday, Mr. Okorafor expressed hope that the Bank’s intervention, coupled with complementary fiscal efforts, would restore the economy to the path of growth.

Meanwhile, the naira maintained its steady rate against major currencies around the globe, appreciating to N360/$1 in the BDC segment of the market on Friday.