Retail SMIS Get $396.18m CBN Boost

The Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) of the foreign exchange market has received a boost of $396.18million 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.

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Okarafor revealed that the latest figures released by the apex bank were targeted primarily at ensuring liquidity in the market as well as encouraging production and trade, particularly now that the focus was on the promotion of local content.

The CBN director further explained that with the country’s reserves nearing $50 billion, the Bank was even more determined to sustain the gains recorded through the various policy options the Bank took in the course of stemming the depletion of the external reserves and steering Nigeria out of recession.

Beyond ensuring liquidity in the inter-bank sector of the market, he said the Bank was committed to supporting efforts aimed growing the economy and further diversifying it away from oil.

Despite rates closing at N362/$1 on Friday, April 20, 2018, Okorafor, insisted that the market would remain stable and that the Bank would ensure it maintains the country’s external reserves in order to safeguard the international value of the Naira.

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The Central Bank of Nigeria in its last SMIS on March 23, 2018, intervened with the sum of $339.89, while also intervening in the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market to the tune of $210 million, comprising of $100million for the wholesale segment and $55 million for both the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles segment on Wednesday.

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