The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday, injected the sum of $263m into the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS), being its first intervention in that sector this year.
This is in addition to the sum CNY 39 million consummated through a combination of spot and short-tenored forwards, arising from bids received from authorized dealers.
The figures obtained from the CBN revealed that the US dollar-denominated interventions were for requests in the agricultural and raw materials sectors while the Yuan sale was for payment of Renminbi-denominated Letters of Credit for agriculture as well as raw materials.
Director, Corporate Communications at the CBN, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, said the move was in furtherance of the Governors avowed commitment to ensuring foreign exchange liquidity in the system as well as boosting trade and production.
With the rates closing at N359/$1 on Friday, Mr. Okorafor, expressed confidence that the CBN, in the weeks ahead, will sustain its intervention through the sale of foreign exchange to all segments of the market to meet all legitimate foreign exchange demand in the market while striving to achieve exchange rate stability in the market.
Okorafor also disclosed that the Governor, Godwin Emefiele, will further unfold the Banks plans for the year during the first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting for the year scheduled for January 21 to 22, 2019.
