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Authorized foreign exchange dealers on Wednesday, subscribe to only $65.94 million out of the $100 million offered by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the inter-bank wholesale transactions concluded the same day.
The Bank also on Wednesday offered another $150 million to be auctioned at the wholesale windows of the inter-bank market.
With this development, experts are of the view that the value of the naira is sure to further strengthen against the other international currencies.
However, the nation’s currency weakened across segments of foreign exchange market in spite of the increased supply by the CBN.
Naira depreciated by N2.96k to close at N382.64k at the investors and exporters window. This was 0.78 percent lower than N379.68k traded the previous day.
At the inter-bank spot foreign exchange market, the local currency weakened by N0.45k to N306.25k on Wednesday from N305.80k the previous day. It closed at between N390 and N391 at the black market.
Isaac Okorafor, Bank’s acting director in charge of corporate communications, said there was no cause for alarm as the development only proved there was enough to meet the legitimate needs of genuine customers.
He further disclosed that the CBN was in receipt of requests submitted by authorized dealers on behalf of customers for interventions in the retail segment of the market. He, however, added that the CBN will continue its intervention of $20,000 to dealers in the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment this week.
While stressing that the CBN was nearing its goal of rate convergence between that of the inter-bank and that of the Bureau de Change (BDCs), Okorafor re-echoed the assurances of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to sustain the current levels of interventions in all segments of the market.
Meanwhile, reports gathered in Abuja indicated the Naira continued to exchange at an average of N385 to the United States dollar.
On the issue of the banks barred from the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Forex window, Okorafor said the CBN will ease the suspension immediately any of the erring banks displayed evidence of significant utilization of the fund allocated to them under the targeted SME window.
