CBN auctions $418 million to agric, aviation, oil sectors

• Apex bank pledges to sustain forex supply
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has auctioned $418 million at the marginal rate of N310 to a dollar to airlines, agriculture, petroleum and raw materials sub sectors.

The CBN acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor said in Abuja that the $480 million offered at the weekend was in addition to the $350 million sold as wholesale auction for travel allowance and school fees at the same period.

He said that in the weeks ahead, the CBN would further sustain its intervention through the sale of foreign exchange to all segments of the market, like the interbank and the Bureau de Change segment.

“The bank will sell short tenured forwards of seven to 30-day maturity to meet demand of manufacturers and all other foreign exchange users. These significant injections of foreign exchange into the market should reassure all foreign exchange users of our determination to continue to meet all legitimate forex demand in the market,” he said.

Okorafor reiterated the bank’s commitment to achieving exchange rate stability in the Nigeria market.

The CBN had in recent months injected dollars to the inter-bank and Bureau de Change foreign exchange market in its bid to sustain forex supply to different categories of users.

This translated to the appreciation of the naira from an all time low of about N560 to a dollar, to N355 within two months.

However, in the last two weeks, the Naira began to weaken again against the dollar, which was attributed to alleged hoarding of the greenback by commercial banks, and insufficient supply to the BDC segments and other stakeholders.

To remedy this, the CBN had threatened to penalise any bank refusing to sell forex to customers.

Also, forex supply to the BDC was increased from $8,000 per week to $10,000. The naira now sells at N405 to a dollar in the parallel market.