CBN continues forex liquidity boost with additional $240m

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday continued boosting the country’s foreign exchange liquidity with 240 million dollars, part of which 150 million dollars will go to dealers in the interbank wholesale window.

Those who stand to gain from the sales through the interbank wholesale auction window include manufacturers, importers of aggro-machineries, plants and critical raw materials.

The Bank’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor in a statement, said that the bank also released 90 million dollars to meet requests for invisibles such as travel allowances, medical and school fees.

He said that henceforth, the apex Bank would sell 10,000 dollars only to low-end Forex dealers once a week rather than the bi-weekly sales it announced earlier.

He said that the CBN had adjusted BDC sale days to Tuesdays only, to reduce logistic difficulties.

According to Okorafor, the CBN has also directed all banks to pay cash over the counter to desiring foreign exchange customers to further ease the access of customers.

He further urged customers to report any un-cooperating bank to the CBN through available platforms.

The CBN, in the recent months, has made offers and releases of over 2 billion dollars to the inter-bank foreign exchange market in its bid to sustain Forex supply to different categories of users.

Last week, the Naira began to weaken against the dollar, which was attributed to alleged hoarding of the dollars by commercial banks, in spite of receiving over 200 million dollars.

The Naira on Friday closed at N394 to a dollar.

It, however, later showed signs of recovery, when it sold at N388 to a dollar on Monday in Abuja.