The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) continued with its task of ensuring exchange rate stability on Thursday, with a further $100m intervention to enable deposit money banks and others meet genuine requests of their wholesale customers.
Of this amount, according to Acting Director of Corporate Communications at the CBN, Isaac Okorafor, $91m was absorbed, indicating greater apprehension among dealers who anticipate a further crash of the dollar in the FOREX market.
The highest and marginal bid rates were N330/$1 and N320/$1, respectively, he added, noting that no intervention was made by the apex bank to meet requests for invisibles.
Okoroafor assured that the dealers will have value for their respective bids on Friday, March 24, 2017.
Meanwhile, reports gathered in Abuja and Lagos on Thursday indicates that the Naira continues to firm up against major currencies, especially the United States Dollar, which exchanged at $1/N385, causing apprehension among speculators, who are now faced with huge losses in the face of continued crash.
According to Abokifx.com, which tracks daily Naira exchange rates against the US$, British Pound (£) and Euro (€), the Nigerian currency strengthened against these major currencies.
For example, “buy” rate stood at N380/$ and “sell”- N400/$ at mid-day, from N400/$ and N410/$ in the morning and on Wednesday. On Monday, the Naira exchange for N440/$ (Buy) and N445 (Sell).
Also on Thursday, the British Pound exchanged for N480/£1 (Buy) and N500/£1 (Sell); compared with Monday’s N525/£1 (buy) and N530/£1 (Sell); while the Euro (‎€) changed hands on Thursday midday for N420/‎€ (buy) and N430/‎€ (Sell); from N460 and N465 on Monday.
It will be recalled that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, at the Monetary Policy Committee briefing on Tuesday, March 21, 2017, assured that the bank will sustain its FOREX intervention in the interbank market. He had also expressed optimism that about the convergence of Forex rates between the Interbank and the BDCs.
Emefiele expressed optimism about the eventual convergence of the Forex rates at the official and parallel markets, stating that the gains made by the naira against the US$ in the last five weeks were not happenstance.
For him: “I am happy, indeed very gratified, that the interventions have been positive; we have seen the rates now converging and we are strongly optimistic that the rates will converge further.
“In terms of sustainability, I think it is important for us to say that the foreign reserves at this time are still trending upwards to almost $31 billion as I speak with you.
“The fact that we have done this consistently for close to five weeks should tell everybody, or those who doubt, the strength of the central bank to sustain this policy,” he added.