IMTOs Sold $25.09m to 3,137 BDCs Last Week

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Last week, International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) supplied $25.09 million to about 3,137 licensed Bureau De Change (BDC) operators in the country.

Also during the week, the Nigerian Naira appreciated against the greenback at the interbank foreign exchange market by 0.12 percent to close at N314.62/$.

This followed sales of $100 million through foreign exchange forwards by CBN on Monday to meet requests for invinsibles such as personal traveling allowance, school fees and medicals.

Elsewhere, the Naira remained stable in the Bureau De Change and parallel (‘black’) market segments at N380/USD and N390/$ respectively.

Meanwhile, the weekly movements in most dated forward contracts at the interbank OTC segment suggested future stability of the Naira viz-a-viz the US greenback amid a slight decrease in the foreign exchange reserves – external reserves decreased week-on-week by 0.16% to $30.296 billion as at Wednesday, March 29, 2017.

The 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months forward contracts remained stable w-o-w at N315.34/$, N323.27/$, N331.53/$ and N349/$ respectively.

The spot rate however appreciated by 0.21 percent to N306.35/$ despite $7.5 million in intervention sales by CBN to banks. In the current week, we expect further stability in the foreign exchange market with possible appreciation against the Dollar subject to CBN’s level of intervention.

Source: Cowry Asset Management Ltd