By Adedapo Adesanya
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it has injected the sum of $218.41 million into the retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS).
According to the Director of Corporate Communications Department at the CBN, Mr Isaac Okorafo, this intervention also included the release of CYN18 million (Chinese Yuan) into the spot and short-tenored forward segment of the interbank foreign exchange market.
In a statement issued at the bank’s headquarters in Abuja on Friday, February 7, Mr Okorafor explained that the development was in continuation of the CBN intervention in the interbank foreign exchange market.
He further disclosed that the FX supply, like in previous exercises, was for requests in the agricultural and raw materials sectors, adding that the Chinese Yuan, on the other hand, was for Renminbi-denominated Letters of Credit.
Mr Okorafor also expressed satisfaction over the stability of the foreign exchange market which, according to him, was largely due to sustained intervention by the apex bank.
He assured that the CBN management would remain committed to ensuring that all the sectors of the forex market continued to enjoy access to the needed foreign exchange.
According to him, this is to ensure that the stability in the foreign exchange market will continue to attract investors into the country.
The CBN noted that on Tuesday (February 4) it offered authorised dealers in the wholesale segment of the market the sum of $100 million, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the invisibles segments each received the sum of $55 million.
Business Post understands that at the Investors and Exporters segment, the Naira/USD traded at N364/$1 while at the Bureau De Change, it was around the N358 mark, and traded at the Interbank at N306.95/$1.
The exchange rate of the local currency against its American counterpart has been stable at various segments of the market since the apex bank started steady supply of forex into the market.
Dipo Olowookere