The nation’s currency on Wednesday traded stable across foreign exchange market segment, following increased dollar supply by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which injected a total of $250 million for forwards.
The CBN yesterday released additional $250 million on 7 to 30 day forwards for agriculture, airline, petroleum products and raw materials. The Bank also called for bids for wholesale spot for $100 million for Basic/Personal Travelling Allowance, medicals and tuition fees.
Confirming this in Abuja on Wednesday, Isaac Okorafor, acting Director, Corporate Communications at the Central Bank of Nigeria, disclosed that the Bank has also commenced heavy injections into the spot market in addition to the settlement of requests for wholesale spot bids for invisibles like school fees, medicals and personal travel allowance.
It will be recalled that earlier this week, the apex Bank had disbursed $20,000 each to the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators in two tranches of $10,000 each, which according to Okorafor underscores the commitment of the Bank to ensure liquidity in the foreign exchange market.
Consequently, Naira closed at between N407 and N410 per dollar at the black market, the same level it closed the previous day.
At the inter-bank spot market, the local currency closed at N306.10k to the dollar the same level the previous day, according to the data obtained from the FMDQ.
The CBN on Tuesday opened and sold a total of $100 million to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) involved in the importation of critical and eligible finished and semi-finished goods.
The new window for SMEs provides small scale importers an avenue to source forex to boost their respective businesses through the importation of eligible finished and semi-finished items.
Also, the Apex Bank plans to open a special window for investors to trade freely for certain eligible transactions particularly dividends and investment remittances.
HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
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