CBN head office in Abuja

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) boosted the foreign exchange market on Wednesday by intervening in various segments of the inter-bank market to the tune of $195 million.

A breakdown the intervention carried out in the first day of transaction after the Eid-el-Fitr holiday indicated that authorized dealers in the wholesale window segment received a $100 million offer from the apex bank, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles windows were allocated the sums of $50 million and $45 million, respectively.

CBN’s Acting Director of Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, confirmed the figures, saying that the Bank was impressed by the high level of transparency exhibited by stakeholders in the market.

CBN had in its last intervention on Friday, June 23, 2017, allocated the total sum of $240 million to the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) for spot and forward deals.

With the rate of inflation dropping from its April 2017 figure of 17.24% to 16.25 % at the end of May, 2017, the CBN spokesman says the Bank remains upbeat that the fortunes of the Naira will improve further in the months to come.

Meanwhile, the naira continued its stability in the FOREX market, exchanging at an average of N363/$1 in the BDC segment of the market on Wednesday, June 28.