Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) weekend, made its first intervention in the interbank sector of the foreign exchange market for 2019 with $210 million injected into the wholesale segment and other sectors of the market.
A breakdown of the figures obtained from the CBN weekend showed that customers in the Wholesale sector of the market received $100 million with the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles sectors each getting $55 million to meet the needs of customers.
The dollar supply has helped to boost liquidity in the market and strengthen the value of the local currency. Consequently, naira gained N1.00k on Friday to close at N361 per dollar at the parallel market from N362 traded the previous day.
However, naira depreciated marginally by N0.05k to close at N365.35k on Friday from N365.30k per dollar traded on Thursday, data from FMDQ indicated.
External reserves last week declined to $43.0 billion as of Friday, January 4, 2019, from $43.28 billion as of December 24, 2018, data from CBN revealed.
Isaac Okorafor, CBN’s director of corporate communications, said the CBN continued from where it stopped in 2018 in order to maintain the stability being enjoyed in the market.
While noting that the bank had made commendable effort in keeping the exchange rates at the current levels, Okorafor re-echoed the Bank’s Governor, Godwin Emefiele saying that the current capital flow reversals from the emerging markets were expected to bring out pressures on the market rates.
He, however, assured that, in spite of the anticipated pressures, coupled with the forthcoming elections, the bank was committed to maintaining the current exchange rate policy, given the level of reserves.
Quoting the Governor, Okorafor said that the CBN was determined to sustain a stable exchange rate as it continues to put in place relevant measures to shore up the country’s reserves.
Meanwhile, one United States dollar ($1) exchanged for N357 in the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the market on Friday, January 4, 2019.
“We expect activity level to improve as Christmas festivities wrap up; and further anticipate that the central bank will continue in its pursuit to stabilise the value of the Naira should any market volatility occur, possibly owing to pre-election uncertainties,” analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited said.
