The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Friday, September 20, 2019, said it has injected a total of $314.74m into the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) and CNY 23.5m in the spot and short tenor forwards segment of the inter-bank foreign market.
A statement by the CBN’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okorafor, said it is in continuation of its intervention in the inter-bank foreign exchange market.
As in previous sales, it noted that the intervention was to meet requests in the agricultural and raw materials sectors, adding that the Chinese Yuan component, on the other hand, was for Renminbi-denominated Letters of Credit.
Okorafor further expressed satisfaction with the stability of the foreign exchange segment of the economy, which according to him, was largely due to sustained intervention by the CBN.
He assured that the apex bank’s management would remain committed to ensuring that all sectors of the forex market continue to enjoy access to the needed foreign exchange.
He stressed that with an improved inflow of foreign exchange, the exchange rate had remained stable around N360/$1 band for the past 30 months.
It will be recalled that the CBN on Tuesday, September 17, 2019, offered authorized dealers in the wholesale segment of the market the sum of $100m, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the invisibles segments each received the sum of $55m.
Meanwhile, $1 exchanged for N358 at the retail segment of the foreign exchange market, while CNY1 exchanged at N47 as at Friday, September 20, 2019.