CBN lifts FX market with $265.5m as Naira maintains stability

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday intervened in the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market with 262.5 million dollars.

Data obtained from the CBN in Abuja revealed that the sum was in favour of the agricultural, airlines, petroleum products and raw materials and machinery sectors.

The Acting Director in charge of Corporate Communications at the bank, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, confirmed the figures, noting that the releases remained targeted at boosting production and trade in addition to sustaining liquidity in the market.

According to him, the CBN will not relent in its resolve to make the inter-bank forex market liquid; stressing that the Bank is committed to driving economic growth and guaranteeing stability in the market.

Okorafor also reiterated that the Bank’s intervention had effectively checked the activities of speculators, assuring that the Bank would continue to thoroughly monitor the activities of authorised dealers in order to checkmate possible sharp practices.
The Naira exchanged at N359 to a United States dollar on Friday, maintaining its stability in the market. The Nigerian currency, on Thursday, January 11, remained strong against the United States of America Dollar and Pound at parallel market.
The local currency exchanged at the rate N363 against the greenback at the black market, same rate at which it traded for as the market kicked off trading in 2018.

Against the British Pound Sterling, the naira closed at the rate of N485. The naira, however, appreciated against the European Single Currency, Euro, to trade at the rate of N431.

Meanwhile the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria, the umbrella body of over 3,500 licensed BDC operators in the country, has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to extend the January 31 deadline set for the renewal of operating licence of its members to March 31, 2018.

This was part of the resolution made at the end of a meeting held by BDC operators in Lagos on Wednesday, January 10.