Ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting decision today the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday lifted the inter-bank foreign exchange market with the sum of $210 million.
The CBN’s interventions helped boost liquidity in the Wholesale, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Invisibles windows.
A breakdown of the intervention shows that the CBN offered the total sum of $100million to the wholesale segment, while the SMEs segment received the sum of $55 million. He said the invisible segment, comprising tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), among others, also received an allocation of $55 million.
The nation’s currency on Monday depreciated marginally by 0.01 percent to close at N360.42k per dollar at the investors and exporters forex window, data from FMDQ show.
At the inter-bank spot market, the naira strengthened marginally by N0.05k as it was quoted at N305.90k to the dollar on Monday compared to N305.95k traded on Thursday and Friday last week.
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Isaac Okorafor, acting director, corporate communications department, said the releases were aimed at boosting liquidity, trade and ease of remittances for legitimate personal commitments.
Okorafor said the Bank was quite pleased with the rate of N360/$1, noting that the continued intervention by the CBN in the inter-bank forex market had largely checked unwholesome activities of currency speculators. He, however, stressed that the CBN would not relent in its monitoring of the market in order to ensure that authorised dealers abide by the extant rules.
It will be recalled that the CBN in its last intervention outing, intervened in the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market with the total sum of $195,000,000.
Meanwhile, the naira maintained its steady rate against major currencies around the globe, exchanging for N360/$1 in the BDC segment of the market on Monday, November 20, 2017.
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