Apart from the $280 million it injected into the Foreign Exchange
Market on Tuesday, April 18, 2017, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on
yesterday, carried out spot, wholesale interventions in the interbank
FOREX market by offering a total sum of $100m to authorized dealers to
meet the 7 to 15-day forwards requests of customers.
The latest intervention was confirmed by the Acting Director,
Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, who,
however disclosed that the banks and authorized dealers were only able
to pick up $68.51 million.
Okorafor attributed the inability of the authorized dealers to fully
subscribe to the CBN to a surfeit of forex in the system, which may lead
to further appreciation of the naira.
He also disclosed that the CBN will on Thursday, April 20, 2017
continue its sale of $20,000 to Bureax de Change (BDCs) for onward sale
to small-end users.
According to him, the trend monitored by the Bank indicated that
deposit money banks are now able to meet the forex demands of their
customers within the time frame stipulated by the CBN.
Speaking further, Okorafor said feedback on the Bank’s forex new
window for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country revealed
that majority of the small importers were heading for a major boost in
their activities. This he said was responsible for the current
appreciation of the Naira, stressing that the Naira will continue to
gain strength with the relentless efforts of the CBN to to supply the
market with forex.
The spokesman also reiterated the determination of the CBN to
continue to intervene in the various sectors of the interbank forex
market in order to guarantee access to all categories of customers
requiring forex for legitimate obligations and ultimately ensure
stability in the forex market.
