CBN Pumps $289.76 million, CNY38.70 million into Forex Market – Following its maiden Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting for 2019, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the weekend injected the sum of $289.76million into the retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) and CNY38.70 million in the spot and short-tenored forwards segment of the inter-bank foreign exchange (FX) market.
The Director, Corporate Communications Department at the CBN, Isaac Okorafor, confirmed the figures, noting that the dollar-denominated interventions were for transactions in the agricultural and raw materials sectors.
On the spot and short-tenored sales in Chinese Yuan, he said they were similarly for payment of Renminbi denominated Letters of Credit for agriculture and raw materials based on bids received from authorised dealers.
While reiterating the Bank’s support to the inter-bank FX market, he disclosed that the Bank’s management was pleased with the level of stability at both the Bureau-de-Change (BDC) and the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) window of the FX market.
According to him, the CBN management was also satisfied with the current implementation of the Bilateral Currency Swap Agreement (BCSA) with the Peoples Bank of China (PBoC), coupled with a recent inflow of about US$2.8 billion Eurobond.
Okorafor, expressed confidence that the FX market in Nigeria would continue to enjoy stability in the coming months and beyond, given the marginal increase in the country’s external reserves.
The CBN had on Tuesday, January 17, 2019, intervened in the wholesale, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles windows of the interbank FX market to the tune of the sum of $210 million.
Meanwhile, the naira exchanged for N361 at the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment of the FX market, while CNY1 exchanged for N53.