CBN Injects $457 Million Into Forex Market

• CBN Injects $457 Million Into Forex Market

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) started the week with the injection of $457.3 million into the foreign exchange market.

The development forced the parallel market rate to retreat further to N386 per dollar, against N388 per dollar recorded at the close of transactions last week.

This came on the heels of a lull in the foreign exchange market last week when the CBN refrained from the usual market interventions witnessed in the last two months and the single largest intervention in more than four weeks.

A source at the apex bank told The Guardian that the bank refrained from major interventions last week because there was a surfeit of accessible foreign exchange in the system, but assured that the CBN would continue to make necessary interventions to ensure the stability of the naira.

Specifically, the source said that it would be massive resurgence from yesterday.

CBN’s Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, had at the weekend reiterated the bank’s commitment to ensuring that there was enough supply of forex to genuine customers in pursuit of rates’ convergence.

A breakdown of the offers indicated that both the spot and forwards segments garnered a total of $267.3 million, while the wholesale segment got $100 million.

Also, the SMEs and invisibles segments, comprising importation of basic items, travel allowances, tuition fees and medicals, got $50 million and $40 million respectively.

Meanwhile, a check on the volume of trading on the investors and exporters in the foreign exchange window in the last three weeks on the FMDQ platform revealed that $600 million had been sold by both the CBN and autonomous sources.

Okorafor noted that the volume of activities in the investors and exporters segment was an indication that they are now being attracted to the financial market and the economy.