Naira closes at 367/$1 at parallel market

The Nigerian currency, Naira, on Tuesday, gained a point to close at 367 per US dollar against 368 sold on Monday, at the parallel market.

Amidst call to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to unify multiple foreign exchange market to sustain gains, the Naira, remained flat at against Pound and Euro, exchanged at £1/N465 and €1/N408 respectively.

Against the general believe that the local currency would appreciate significantly, due to injection of $195 million forex injected by the CBN, but the local currency at the official market closed at $1/N305.80, representing a slight drop compare to N305.75 exchanged on last week.

Also, at the Investors and Exporters Foreign Exchange (I&E FX) window, the naira fell to $1/N366.20, against the opening figure of $1/369.34 traded on Monday, which was 0.34 per cent gain on Tuesday the previous day, according to data obtained from FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange website.

The CBN’s intervention last week, was at a tune of over $800 million in the inter-bank foreign exchange and on Monday, $195 million was injected.

A breakdown of the intervention revealed that the apex bank offered $100 million to authorised dealers’ inter-bank wholesale window, while it allocated the sum of $50 million to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) window. The invisibles segment was allocated the sum of $45 million to meet the needs of those who applied for forex to settle Business/Personal Travel Allowances, school tuition, and medicals, among others.

Confirming the figures in the latest round of intervention by the bank, its acting Director in charge of Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, also announced a retail option submitted on Monday, adding that the results would be released subsequently.

The CBN spokesperson said the apex bank would continue to ensure adherence to its forex policy by insisting on transparency of all stakeholders to guarantee stability in the market.

Recall that CBN made two major interventions in the inter-bank forex market last week totaling $831.5 million, just as figures released by the apex bank indicated that it had boosted transactions at the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) segment of the market to the tune of $2.2