CBN injects $195m into foreign exchange market

Following its 800 million dollars intervention in the inter-bank Foreign Exchange (FOREX) Market last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Monday, injected 195 million dollars into the market to meet the requests of customers in the various segments of the market.

The acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor , said in a statement in Abuja that the bank would soon introduce a new FOREX retail option.

Giving a breakdown of funds injected on Monday, he said the apex bank offered 100 million dollars to authourised dealers through interbank wholesale window, while it allocated 50 million dollars to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) window.

Okorafor said the Invisibles segment was allocated 45 million dollars to meet the needs of those who applied for FOREX to settle Business/Personal Travel Allowances, school tuition and medicals.

The CBN spokesperson said the bank would continue to ensure adherence to its forex policy by insisting on transparency by stakeholders to guarantee stability in the market.

The CBN made two major interventions in the inter-bank Forex market last week, totaling 831.5 million dollars.

Since February 2017, the bank had boosted transactions at the Investors’ and Exporters’ segment of the market to the tune of 2.2 billion dollars.

Also last week, the CBN, in a bid to tackle inflation, unveiled plan to mop up N200.32 billion from the Nigerian banking system through special Open Market Operation (OMO) at the rate of 16 per cent per annum.

Meanwhile, the Naira had continued to maintain its stability in the FOREX market, exchanging at an average of N364 to a dollar at the parallel segment of the market on Monday.