The naira firmed up sharply to trade at N385 to the US$ on Thursday, 20 April morning after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday, April 19, 2017, carried out spot, wholesale interventions in the interbank foreign exchange market by offering a total sum of $100m to authorized dealers to meet the 7 to 15-day forwards requests of customers.
The sale is coming after the CBN injected a total of $280 million into the Foreign Exchange Market on Tuesday, April 18, 2017. This means that the CBN has injected a total of US$380 million into the foreign exchange market this week.
The CBN capacity to continue to defend the naira has been boosted by the continuous rise in external reserves which has risen to $30.56 billion as at April 18, 2017 data from the CBN website has indicated.
Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Isaac Okorafor, disclosed yesterday that CBN would on Thursday, April 20, 2017 continue its sale of $20,000 to Bureax de Change (BDCs) for onward sale to small-end users.
Okorafor said that Banks are now able to meet the foreign exchange demands of their customers within the time frame stipulated by the CBN following the increased intervention by the apex bank.
He affirmed that the CBN is determined to continue to intervene in the various sectors of the interbank forex market in order to guarantee access to all categories of customers requiring foreign exchange for legitimate obligations and ultimately ensure stability naira.
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