Business

CBN intensifies forex intervention, auctions $418m

Published

9 years ago

April 10, 2017

By Chioma Obinagwam

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that it has auctioned another $418 million at the retail-SMIS at a marginal rate of N310 to a dollar.

The Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okoroafor disclosed in a statement on Monday.

He further revealed that the auction which took place on Friday, April 7, 2017, showed that airlines, agriculture, petroleum and raw materials/machineries sub sectors benefitted from the auction.

This is coming on the heels of series of interventions by the apex bank, the latest been the injection of $240 million in the Foreign Exchange (Forex) market for Business Travel Allowance(BTA) and Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) in addition to meeting the demands at the inter-bank window.

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Mr. Okorafor stated that the interventions is part of its resolve to ensure ample supply of Forex liquidity in the market and further assured the public that it would further sustain its intervention in that regard.

The Acting Director added that the Bank will sell short tenured forwards of 7-30-day maturity to meet demand of manufacturers and all other foreign exchange users.

He said: “These significant injections of foreign exchange into the market should reassure all foreign exchange users of our determination to continue to meet all legitimate FX demand in the market while striving to achieve exchange rate stability in the market.”