The Central Bank of Nigeria has continued to intervene in the local economy with more forex pumped into the market.
The naira yesterday recorded its biggest daily appreciation of N6 against the dollar in the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window, with the exchange rate falling to N359 per dollar.
The naira also appreciated by N1 in the parallel due to weak demand for dollars. Vanguard survey revealed that the parallel market exchange rate dropped from N366 per dollar last week Friday to N365 at the close of business yesterday.
Data from the Financial Market Dealers Quote (FMDQ) for transactions in the I &E window, also known as the Nigeria Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX), showed that the indicative exchange rate for the window dropped to N359 per dollar at the close of trading from N366.44 per dollar last Friday.
The data also indicated that $86 million was traded yesterday. A survey of markets in the Bureau de Change segment (BDCs) in Abuja, showed that the naira exchanged at an average of N360 to a dollar in the BDC segment of the market.
The acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor in a statement on Monday in Abuja said that 100 million dollars was offered to authorised dealers in the wholesale window. Similarly the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) window was allocated the sum of 50 million dollars.
Also, those seeking forex for the purpose of business and personal travel, tuition and medical bills, among other invisibles, received the sum of 45 million dollars.
Okorafor said that the Bank’s continued intervention was aimed at strengthening the international value of the Naira, while ensuring accessibility to the greenback by customers who required it for genuine purposes.
It will be recalled that the CBN in the last round of forex intervention in the inter-bank market on June 28, injected 195 million dollars to the wholesale, SMEs and invisibles segments of the market.