The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has concluded plans to continue its sale of $20,000 to Bureax de Change (BDCs) tomorrow, Thursday, for onward sale to small-end users.
According to the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, the trend monitored by the apex Bank indicated that deposit money banks are now able to meet the forex demands of their customers within the time frame stipulated by the CBN.
Okorafor said that feedback on the Bank’s forex new window for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country revealed that majority of the small importers were heading for a major boost in their activities.
This he said, was responsible for the current appreciation of the Naira, stressing that the Naira will continue to gain strength with the relentless efforts of the CBN to to supply the market with forex.
He said that the apex bank, today, carried out spot, wholesale interventions in the interbank FOREX market by offering a total sum of $100 million to authorized dealers to meet the 7 to 15-day forwards requests of customers.
According to him that the banks and authorized dealers were only able to pick up $68.51 million even as he attributed the inability of the authorized dealers to fully subscribe to the CBN to a surfeit of forex in the system, which may lead to further appreciation of the naira.
The CBN spokesman reiterated the determination of the apex bank to continue to intervene in the various sectors of the interbank forex market in order to guarantee access to all categories of customers requiring forex for legitimate obligations and ultimately ensure stability in the forex market. [myad]
