CBN offers $81.2m, as parallel market remains N391

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday, intervened in the foreign exchange market with $81.2 million, covering invisibles and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segments.

Meanwhile, the parallel market rate has remained steady at N391 per dollar, the level it was throughout last week, as a result of the persistent interventions by the regulator, in fulfillment of its pledge to keep the market liquid.

The intervention, which came on the heels of $389 million offer in the retail segment of the forex market last weekend, showed that the apex bank provided the sum of $44 million to meet customers’ requests for invisibles such as Basic Travel Allowances (BTA), Personal Travel Allowances (PTA), medical bills and tuition fees, among others.

The Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Isaac Okorafor, who confirmed the intervention, added that the SMEs segment also received a $37.2 million boost.

“The bank remains committed to ensuring that there is enough supply of forex to genuine customers to achieve the goal of forex rates convergence,” he said.
While expressing satisfaction with the current stability in the forex market, Okorafor reiterated his confidence in the ability of the CBN to sustain its interventions in the market.

It will be recalled that the CBN on Friday, May 5, 2017, sold $389 million to authorised dealers in the retail sector of the market as spot and forwards.
Of the sum, $87.885 was for spot sales, while $300.8 million was sold as forwards in three tenors of 30, 45 and 60 days, respectively.