Economy
CBN Unveils New Forex Policy Actions
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
In a bid to ease the huge pressure on the Naira at the foreign exchange market, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released new policy actions aimed at achieving this goal.
In recent times, the Naira has performed woefully against the Dollar, exchanging at N522 per Dollar at the moment.
In the new policy, the apex bank said it is providing direct additional funding to banks to meet the needs of Nigerians for personal and business travel, medical needs, and school fees, effective immediately.
The CBN said it expects such retail transactions to be settled at a “rate not exceeding 20 percent above the interbank market rate,” which presently stands at N305.50k per Dollar.
The CBN explained that it took this step in continuation of efforts to increase the availability of forex in order to ease the difficulties encountered by Nigerians in obtaining funds for transactions.
The bankers’ bank said having cleared the historic backlog of matured letters of credit at the inception of the current flexible exchange rate system, it would immediately begin to provide foreign exchange to all commercial banks to meet the needs of both personal travel allowances (PTA) and business travel allowances (BTA) for onward sale to customers.
“All banks would receive amounts commensurate with their demand per week, which would be sold to customers who meet usual basic documentary requirements,” it said in a statement issued on Monday by its spokesman, Mr Isaac Okorafor.
In addition, the statement said the CBN would meet the needs of parents, guardians and sponsors who are seeking to make payments of school and educational fees for their children and wards. Such payments must be made by commercial banks directly to the institution specified by the customer.
It promised to ensure this process is as smooth as possible and that as many customers as possible get the foreign exchange they genuinely demand, noting that this would also apply to customers seeking to make payments, or purchase foreign exchange, for medical bills and paid directly to hospitals.
“The supply of FX to retail end-users (PTA, BTA, School fees, medical bills, etc) would be sustained by the CBN,” the statement said.
The apex further said that in order to further increase the availability of foreign exchange to all end-users, it has decided to significantly reduce the tenor of its forward sales from the current maximum cycle of 180 days, to no more than 60 days from the date of transaction and pointed out that as way of further easing the burden of travellers and ensure that transactions are settled at much more competitive exchange rates, it has directed all banks to open FX retail outlets at major airports as soon as logistics permit.
Also, the CBN said it will immediately begin implementing its articulated program to clear all the unfilled orders in the interbank FX market; give its plan to meet all unfilled orders, and while provision of FX to the manufacturing sector would remain its strong priority, and will no longer impose allocation/utilization rules on commercial banks.
The apex bank further it will implement an effective intervention programme to support the inter-bank market to ensure adequate liquidity necessary to deliver an efficient FX market; advise FMDQ to activate its FX Order-Book systems as soon as possible and also accelerate the on-boarding of FX clients on the FX Relationship Systems to ensure total transparency of the FX market.
“Given the CBN’s objective to continuously and vigorously pursue a transparent, liquid, and efficient FX Market, the Bank reiterates it would neither tolerate unscrupulous actions nor hesitate to bring serious sanctions on offenders, be they banks or their staff,” CBN said in the statement.
The apex urged market participants to assist in ensuring that these new measures engender the preservation of Nigeria’s external reserves, stability of the country’s financial system, and growth of the nation’s economy to the benefit of all Nigerians.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The duo of MRS Oil and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc weakened the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 0.68 per cent on Friday, June 5.
MRS Plc lost N19.00 during the session to sell at N171.00 per share compared with Thursday’s value of N190.00 per share, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc depreciated by N8.70 to finish at N181.68 per unit compared with the preceding session’s N190.38 per unit.
As a result, the market capitalisation further lost N22.59 billion to close at N2.607 trillion versus the N2.630 trillion it ended a day earlier, and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) dropped 37.76 points to settle at 4,358.32 points, in contrast to the previous day’s 4,396.08 points.
The alternative stock market closed the last trading day of this week with a price gainer, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, which gained 6 Kobo to quote at N78.40 per share compared with the preceding session’s N78.34 per share. However, it could not prevent the market from going down at the close of business.
Yesterday, the volume of securities bought and sold by investors went down by 50.0 per cent to 140,345 units from the preceding day’s 280,714 units, the value of stocks decreased by 16.5 per cent to N17.9 million from the previous session’s N21.5 million, and the number of deals carried out by market participants fell by 35.7 per cent to 27 deals from the 42 deals recorded on Thursday.
When trading activities closed for the day, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units exchanged for N8.4 billion, trailed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units sold for N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 64.7 million units traded for N4.4 billion.
GNI Plc also ended the session as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units transacted for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units valued at N415.7 million.
By Dipo Olowookere
Renewed interest in financial stocks and others lifted the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited by 0.15 per cent on Friday.
Customs Street closed higher yesterday despite the 1.37 per cent loss recorded by the consumer goods sector as a result of profit-taking.
This was offset by gains in the other key sectors of the local bourse, as the insurance counter chalked up 1,14 per cent. The banking space appreciated by 0.90 per cent, the industrial goods segment grew by 0.46 per cent, and the energy sector expanded by 0.01 per cent.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 366.00 points to 242,593.31 points from 242,227.31 points, and the market capitalisation gained N235 billion to close at N155.594 trillion compared with the previous day’s N155.359 trillion.
The trio of International Energy Insurance, Abbey Mortgage Bank, and DAAR Communications improved by 10.00 per cent each yesterday to N7.26, N9.35, and N1.98, respectively, while Zichis advanced by 9.39 per cent to N32.38, with Sovereign Trust Insurance up by 8.70 per cent to N2.50.
On the flip side, Academy Press lost 9.84 per cent to quote at N8.25, University Press depreciated by 9.73 per cent to N5.10, Africa Prudential dipped by 2.63 per cent to N12.95, Chams crumbled by 2.44 per cent to N4.00, and International Breweries slipped by 1.59 per cent to N12.35.
Business Post reports that the market breadth index was positive during the session after recording 37 appreciating equities and 14 depreciating equities, implying strong investor sentiment.
Abbey Mortgage Bank led the activity chart with a turnover of 164.1 million units worth N1.5 billion, Ellah Lakes sold 76.7 million units for N767.2 million, Access Holdings transacted 44.8 million units valued at N1.1 billion, Linkage Assurance exchanged 23.0 million units worth N41.2 million, and The Initiates traded 20.2 million units for N562.1 million.
At the close of trades, market participants transacted 608.5 million units worth N32.0 billion in 53,826 deals versus the 588.5 million units valued at N27.9 billion executed in 57,352 deals in the previous session. This showed that the number of deals eased by 6.15 per cent, the volume of transactions rose by 3.40 per cent, and the value of transactions soared by 14.70 per cent.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira further depreciated against the United States Dollar by N3.46 or 0.25 per cent to N1,362.21/$1 from N1,358.75/$1 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Friday, June 5.
However, it appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the same market window during the session by N4.47 to trade at N1,823.59/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,828.06/£1, and gained N7.00 against the Euro to sell at N1,574.58/€1, in contrast to Thursday’s closing price of N1,581.58/€1.
For another trading session, the Nigerian Naira maintained stability against the Dollar in the parallel market and the GTBank forex counter on Friday at N1,375/$1 and N1,372/$1, respectively.
The Naira is expected to remain strong in the near term, backed by a rise in external reserves, which are nearing $50 billion, enhancing analysts’ confidence about its outlook in the second half of 2026.
Heightened global uncertainty has reduced the incentive for importers and corporates to demand FX, as cautious trade weighs on import needs. Analysts estimate a $40 billion net FX position for the year, a projection anchored in oil windfall gains.
As for the cryptocurrency market, prices remained depressed following a strong US jobs report that spurred markets to price in higher-for-longer interest rates, sending Treasury yields and the dollar up while hammering stocks, especially AI-related names. Crypto markets saw heavy leverage washouts with about $1.6 billion in positions liquidated over 24 hours.
Ethereum (ETH) gave up 4.9 per cent to trade at $1,584.68, Solana (SOL) fell by 3.3 per cent to $63.22, Bitcoin (BTC) crashed by 1.9 per cent to $61,333.23, Dogecoin (DOGE) slipped by 1.8 per cent to $0.0821, and Ripple (XRP) moderated by 1.8 per cent to $1.09.
Further, TRON (TRX) dropped 1.6 per cent to sell at $0.3197, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 1.0 per cent to $581.18, and Cardano (ADA) declined by 0.4 per cent to $0.1589, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) gained 0.07 to sell at $0.9997, and US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $0.9998.
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