Forex Market Gets $210m CBN Boost

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), continued its weekly intervention in different segments of the inter-bank Foreign Exchange market with the sum of $210 million.

The CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, who confirmed the figures on Wednesday, said the latest intervention is to ensure the availability of foreign exchange to genuine customers.

A breakdown of the Bank’s latest round of intervention indicates that the CBN offered the sum of $100 million to dealers in the wholesale window, while those in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) window received an allocation of $55 million.

The invisibles segment, comprising Business/Personal Travel Allowances, school tuition, medicals, was allocated the sum of $55 million.

Okorafor urged the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to continue to comply with the Bank’s directive to sell forex over the counter to customers with legitimate needs so as to sustain the confidence in the foreign exchange market.

It will be recalled that the CBN had recently ordered banks not to deny genuine travelers Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) and Business Travel Allowance (BTA) as there are enough dollar supplies to meet the demand.

This was followed by the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele leading Bank Examiners to conduct on-the-spot assessment of forex sales in the DMBs on Monday.

Meanwhile, the naira continued its stability in the Forex market, exchanging at an average of N363/$1 in the Bureau De Change segment of the market.