The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), gave the Naira a further lift against other major currencies yesterday with its injection of another $250million into various segments of the inter-bank foreign exchange market on Tuesday just as the naira appreciated against the dollar, trading at ₦364 to $1 at the parallel market.
Figures obtained from the CBN on Tuesday indicated that the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) segment of the market received the highest intervention with a total of $100 million, as the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) window received a boost of $80 million, while the invisibles segment, comprising Business/Personal Travel Allowances, school tuition, medicals, among others was allocated the sum of $70 million to meet various demands.
Meanwhile, the local currency gained ₦1, stronger than ₦365 posted on Friday, while the pound sterling and the euro closed at ₦470 and ₦430.
Trading at the bureau de change (BDC) window saw the naira closing at ₦362 to the dollar, while the pound sterling and the euro traded at ₦470 and ₦430 respectively.
At the investors’ window, the naira was sold at ₦360.39 to the dollar, while it exchanged at ₦305.8 to the dollar at the interbank market.
Traders said activities at the market was yet to resume fully as most traders were yet to resume after the Sallah break.
Confirming the intervention, the apex bank’s spokesman, Isaac Okorafor, noted that the recent Quarter 2, report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) ,which indicated that Nigeria has gotten out of recession and hinged part of this success to the regular intervention of the bank in the forex market, to boost liquidity in the market, ensuring timely execution and settlement for eligible transactions and also make forex available to the real sector and industrial capacities, critical to the Nigerian economy.
Okorafor also reminded the public of the governor’s prediction few months ago that the economy will be out of recession at the end of the third quarter, which is largely due to the monetary policy stance of the CBN. This has been confirmed by the NBS Report.
Recall that, last week, the Naira was given a boost as the CBN injected $297million into the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) segment, raising the total intervention for the week to the sum of $547million..