CBN Sells $313m in Forward Auction

• CBN Sells $313m in Forward Auction

The Central Bank of Nigeria has sold about $313m in a two-month forward auction to clear backlog of dollar demand, Citibank has said.

The United States-based lender stated this in a note on Thursday, Reuters reported.

The CBN had last week held a two-month dollar forward auction to clear a backlog of demand from airlines, manufacturers and other companies, as the dollar scarcity crisis deepened.

Traders said the bank had sold less foreign exchange than it was expected at a special auction, and that bids had been accepted at around a range of 310-350 per dollar.

Meanwhile, the CBN sold N81.47bn ($267.55m) in short-dated treasury bills at an auction on Wednesday, with mixed yields, data from the central bank showed on Thursday.

The central bank had proposed to sell N138.16bn worth of the debt in its initial announcement, Reutersreported.

A total of N20.92bn of the three-month paper was sold at 14 per cent, against 13.90 per cent at the previous auction on October 5.

The bank sold N28.20bn of six-month debt at 17.09 per cent, unchanged from the last auction. It also sold N32.35bn of the one-year bills at 18.30 per cent compared with 18.25 per cent previously.

Total subscriptions stood at N115.26bn compared with N311.40bn at the last auction.

The Federal Government issues treasury bills to raise cash to fund the budget deficit, manage banking system liquidity and curb rising inflation.