The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently conducted a Retail Dutch Auction System (RDAS) on August 6, 2024, in an effort to improve supply to the foreign exchange market and promote price discovery.
In this auction, total bids came to $1.18 billion which was received from 32 authorised dealer banks.
Of this, bids valued at $876.26 million at N1,495 per dollar to end users whose bids were submitted by some 26 banks while bids valued at $313.69 million from six banks were disqualified.
This move came in response to the continued strain on the FX market, exacerbated by unmet demand from end users, particularly as businesses and individuals scramble for foreign currency amid the ongoing economic challenges in Nigeria.
A recent document by the apex bank titled “Result of the retail FX sales to end users through authorised dealer bank via the Retail Dutch Auction System (RDAS) by the Central Bank of Nigeria Held on August 06, 2024,” disclosed that the calls for bids were in naira/US dollar (N/US$) currency pair for unmet Fx demand backed by verifiable Forms A and M only.
It said,” All bids were password protected and submitted through the dedicated email address provided by CBN between 09:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Bids received after 3:00 pm were disqualified. Passwords for the bids were sent after the auction closed. The total bids received were valued at US$1,191,071,651.59. “
“After the collation, the Committee of Governors of the Central Bank of Nigeria approved a cut-off bid of N1495.00/US$ with the total successful bids of US$815,362.006.30 (Eight Hundred and Fifteen Million, Three Hundred and Sixty-Two Thousand and Six US dollars and Thirty Cents),” CBN said.
Here are the banks that secured the highest amount of foreign exchange (FX) from the CBN during the latest Retail Dutch Auction:
1. Zenith Bank – $267.86 million
2. First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) – $228.99 million
3. Access Bank – $79.09 million
4. Fidelity Bank – $43.61 million
5. GTBank (GTB) – $29.54 million
6. Standard Chartered (STANCHART) – $28.42 million
7. TAJ Bank – $19.1 million
8. Jaiz Bank- $16.71 million
9. Sterling Bank– $14.39 million
10. Union Bank – $13.26 million
11. Citi Bank – $12 million
12. Providus Bank – $11.45 million
13. Globus Bank – $11.07 million
14. Polaris Bank – $10.44 million
15. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (Ecobank) – $5.32 million
16. FBN Quest – $5.089 million
17. Keystone Bank – $4.63 million
18. Coronation Merchant Bank – $4.47 million
19. Lotus Bank – $4.04 million
20. Nova – $2.09 million
21. FSDH Merchant Bank – $1.99 million
22. Unity Bank – $616138.33
23. Signature Bank – $551,753.00
24. Parallex Bank – $548,052.17
25. Greenwich Merchant Bank – $17,217.40
26. Titan – $790.78
The six disqualified banks include:
1. United Bank of Africa (UBA) – $13.21 million (Late submission)
2. FCBM – $178. 65 (Late submission)
3. Stanbis IBTC (STANBIC) – $57.85 million (Late submission)
4. Wema Bank (WEMA) – $21.94 million (late submission)
5. SunTrust Bank (SUNTRUST) – $7.37 million (Late submission)
6. Rand Merchant Bank Nigeria (RAND) – No bid submitted
