CBN boosts forex market with $195m
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday boosted the foreign exchange market by offering the market $195 million in three segments.
The apex bank auctioned $100 million in the wholesale segment and also intervened in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invisible segments, with $50 million and $45million respectively.
According to Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Isaac Okorafor, “during this season when there are pressures on the market from those seeking forex for school fees and vacations, the Bank has kept faith with its resolve to ensure that there is sustained liquidity in the market and ensure that genuine requests for FOREX are met, as well as improve liquidity and flexibility in the market”.
This comes on the heels of last week’s intervention in which the retail secondary market intervention sales (SMIS) received the largest allocation of $264,192,252.95 and the authorized dealers in the wholesale window had the sum of $100,000,000.
Last week, the CBN, in a bid to improve foreign exchange availability in the Nigerian Forex Market and ameliorate challenges encountered by critical stakeholders, said payment for port charges to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and other agencies by oil marketing companies would henceforth be accommodated by the Bank using Form ‘A’.