CBN tells lenders to fund accounts for Thursday’s dollar sales

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) told commercial lenders to fund their naira accounts on Tuesday to be able to participate in a currency intervention on the interbank market on Thursday, traders said, citing a message from the regulator.

The central bank did not disclose how much it would sell but one trader said the bank sold between $100 million and $150 million at its intervention last Thursday.

Last month the bank banned dollar sales to retail bureaux de change outlets, sending the naira to record lows on the black market and later stopped daily sales to the interbank market, all to conserve reserves which are down to an 11-year low.

The naira traded around a pegged rate of 198 to the dollar on the official interbank market on Tuesday but was quoted at 305 on the black market.