Forex: CBN injects $250m to lift Naira
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has given the Naira further lift against other major currencies with its injection of another $250m into various segments of the inter-bank Foreign Exchange (Forex) 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.
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, etc. was allocated the sum of $70 million to meet the demands of customers.
Confirming the figures, the Bank’s spokesman, Isaac Okorafor, noted with delight the Quarter 2, 2017 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.
Okorafor further noted that the regular intervention has boosted liquidity in the market and ensured timely execution and settlement for eligible transactions and also make forex available to the real sector and industrial capacities, critical to the Nigerian economy.
He also reminded the public of the governor’s prediction few months ago that the Nigerian economy will be out of recession at the end of the third quarter, 2017, which is largely due to the monetary policy stance of the CBN. This has been confirmed by the NBS Report.
The Daily Times recalls that last week, the Naira was given a boost as the CBN injected $297m into the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) segment, raising the total intervention for the week to the sum of $547m.
