The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday boosted the inter-bank Foreign Exchange market with another sum of $210 million.
The apex bank offered $100 million to authorised dealers in the wholesale segment of the market. The Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) segment got $55 million while the sum of $55 million was apportioned to invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA).
CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okorafor, confirmed the figures and reiterated CBN’s capacity to continue to sustain the foreign exchange intervention.
He urged authorized dealers to help sustain the confidence in the foreign exchange market by continuing to honour requests from customers with genuine needs.
It will be recalled that the Central Bank of Nigeria last Friday, May 4, 2018 intervened in the Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) to the tune of $349.34m.
Meanwhile, the Naira, on Tuesday, May 8, 2018, continued to maintain its stability in the FOREX market, exchanging at an average of N362/$1 in the BDC segment of the market.
Meanwhile, traders said the currency started to weaken last week as demand piled up especially from companies seeking to repatriate dividends and investors booking profits from local assets. Importers buying goods from abroad were also exerting pressure on the naira.
Nigeria emerged from its first recession in a quarter of a century last year but growth is still fragile. It then introduced a multiple exchange rate regime to manage dollar demand as a way to alleviate chronic shortages on the currency markets.