The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday, August 15, 2017, intervened in the Inter-Bank Foreign Exchange Market to the tune of $364million in a bid to sustain liquidity in the market.
A breakdown of Tuesday’s forex intervention indicates that the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) received the largest allocation of $264,192,252.95. The CBN also offered the sum of $100,000,000 to authorised dealers in the wholesale window.
Confirming the figures yesterday, sources at the Bank said the CBN also received requests from authorized forex dealers on behalf of their customers, for which results will be released.
According to the sources, the Bank remained committed to achieving a convergence of rates at the inter-bank and Bureau-de-Change segments of the market.
It will be recalled that the Bank last week intervened in the wholesale, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles windows to the tune of $195 million.
Meanwhile, the CBN, in a bid to improve foreign exchange availability in the Nigerian Forex Market and ameliorate challenges encountered by critical stakeholders, says payment for port charges to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and other agencies by oil marketing companies can now be accommodated by the Bank using Form ‘A’.
A circular endorsed by the Director, Trade and Exchange Department, Wuritka Dauda Gotring, directed authorized delears to accept the request for the payments of port charges from oil marketing companies and forward same to the CBN Forex window.