Nigeria’s currency on Tuesday remained stable exchanging at N465 against the dollar on the black market.
The naira stability was due to improved liquidity as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has sold over $200 million to Bureau De Change (BDC) operators since the past two weeks of resumption of international flights.
BusinessDay reported that 5,090 BDCs would on Tuesday receive $50.9 million allocation from the Apex bank.
The CBN resumed dollar sales to BDCs on Monday September 7, 2020 and had supplied over $200 million to the BDCs according to BusinessDay’s forex monitor. The Apex bank sells $10,000 twice weekly to this segment of the foreign exchange market.
Naira broke its stability at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, appreciating marginally by 0.05 percent as the dollar was quoted at N385.80 as against N386.00 being quoted since six days ago.
Analysts at FSDH research said most participants maintained bids between N383.00 and N392.62 per dollar. Demand pressure in the FX market remains elevated, despite the FX sale to BDCs following the resumption of international travel. At the I&E FX Window, the analysts said the CBN has intervened to the tune of $112 million over the first two weeks in September.
The market opened with an indicative rate of N386.70k on Tuesday, this signalled depreciation by N0.20k when compared with N386.15k opened with on Monday, data from the FMDQ said.
During its two day meeting on Monday and Tuesday, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) noted the resumption of sales to the BDC in a bid to improve liquidity and ease demand pressure in the foreign exchange market. Consequently, the exchange rate appreciated at all windows.
The MPC observed the recent improvement in external reserves and urged the Bank to maintain its prudent allocation of foreign exchange towards balancing supply and demand.
