The resolve by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to saturate the foreign exchange market with US$ supply continues to yield the desired result with absorptive capacity declining further to 39%, from the previous 45%.
On Thursday last week, the apex bank said operators could only pick a little over $39m of the $100m offered for bid.
With this development, market analysts believe that the Naira is set to firm up against major currencies like the Dollar and pound sterling during the week.
In line with its resolve, the CBN had last week opened a special window to enable Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) access forex for importation of eligible finished and semi-finished items not exceeding $20,000 for an enterprise per quarter.
That was in addition to the special intervention in the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the foreign exchange market which resulted in each operator accessing $20,000 as against the earlier stipulated $10,000 per week.
These special interventions, Isaac Okorafor, the CBN spokesman explained, were necessitated by findings that a large number of SMEs were being crowded out of the forex space by large firms and also service genuine demand for invincible like tuition fees, medical a and personal/basic travel allowance.