Yemisi Izuora
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has auctioned the sum of $185.86million at the retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS).
The Bank’s Acting Director in charge of Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor while confirming the auction sale, disclosed that out of the auctioned amount, only $3.14million was sold as spots, while the sum of $182.72million was sold as forwards.
Okorafor further explained that the overall picture of the inter-bank forex market was that of optimism, going by the level of access now being enjoyed by different categories of customers in both the wholesale and retail segments of the market.
It will be recalled that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, while assuring Nigerians of the imminent end of the current recession in 2017, at the end of his meeting with the leadership of the Senate on Tuesday, April 25, 2017, declared that the Bank will continue its relentless intervention in the forex market.
Emefiele hinged the optimism of the CBN on the accretion to the country’s foreign reserve, which he said currently hovered above the $31billion mark.
According to him, “our reserves stand at above $31bn and that provides us enough of firepower or ammunition to be able to defend the currency, and we will do so with all intensity to ensure that foreign exchange is procured by everybody”.
He further reiterated the Bank’s assurance to all shades of genuine customers that the CBN would provide them the needed foreign exchange to meet their legitimate needs, stressing that the new forex window opened by the apex bank last week aimed at encouraging foreign investors in the country’s forex market.