By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has promised to ensure ample supply of foreign exchange liquidity in the market.
Last Friday, the apex bank auctioned the sum of $418 million at the retail-SMIS at a marginal rate of N310 per Dollar.
Those in the airlines, agriculture, petroleum and raw materials/machineries sub sectors benefitted from the auction, the central bank said.
This was in addition to the sum of $350 million sold as wholesale auction, BTA/PTA, and school fees during the week.
The CBN, in a statement issued by its Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor, stated that in the weeks ahead, it would sustain its intervention through the sale of foreign exchange to all segments of the market i.e. PTA/BTA, Wholesale SMIS, Retail SMIS and the BDC.
The Bank will sell short tenured forwards of 7-30-day maturity to meet demand of manufacturers and all other foreign exchange users.
These significant injections of foreign exchange into the market should reassure all foreign exchange users of our determination to continue to meet all legitimate FX demand in the market while striving to achieve exchange rate stability in the market.