Naira yesterday strengthened against the US dollar gaining 23 kobo at the Nigerian Interbank Foreign Exchange (NIFEX) market after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervened with forex sale of $399.7 million.
Consequently, naira closed at N166.06/$ as against N166.30/$ traded on Friday last week, data from Financial Markets Dealers Quotations (FMDQ) have revealed.
The CBN yesterday offered a total $400 million but sold a total of $399.7 million to 21 deposit money banks that participated in the bi-weekly Retail Dutch Action System (RDAS) at the rate of N155.75/$.
The CBN’s intervention calmed down the uncertainties that griped the market last week, following the suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the CBN governor by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Analysts had anticipated that naira would this week stabilise as the new management of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) continues its interventions to manage interim systemic shock triggered by the suspension of Sanusi.
The investment world Thursday last week was greeted with the suspension of Sanusis, the CBN governor, by the Federal Government on; an event that sent the local financial markets reeling, the analysts said.
Consequently, the Nigerian Naira lost ground to the dollar in most alternative market segments on a week-to-date basis despite the Central Bank’s intervention on Thursday last week.
By: HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
