Dollar crashes further as CBN continues FX intervention

By Odunewu Segun

Central Bank of Nigeria’s continued flooding of the foreign exchange market with Dollars has crashed the currency further against the local currency, Naira, National Daily findings has revealed.

The Naira firmed up at the Bureau de Change (BDCs) segment on Thursday, trading at between N376 and N378 to the United States Dollar in Lagos, Abuja and Kano.

A market survey revealed that the Naira, which sold at over N405 to $1 as Monday this week, recorded a boost.

There were indications that the appreciation of the Naira was as a result of policy actions of the CBN to inject more foreign exchange into the financial system, specifically targeting critical sectors in addition to special interventions in the areas of SMEs and BDCs.

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According to a source at the apex Bank, the Naira is expected to appreciate further when the BDCs receive another tranche of $20,000 purchases from the CBN today, April 20, 2017.

In a bid to sustain supply of liquidity to the foreign exchange market, CBN made special interventions by simplifying the documentation process for the SMEs to enable them import eligible items and also increased both the amount and number of sales to the BDCs.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has pumped a total $380million within two days into the foreign exchange market in a bid to further strengthen the naira.

The first tranche of $280m was released on Tuesday and on Wednesday, the bank offered additional $100 million to authorised dealers to meet the 7 to 15-day forwards requests of customers.