Naira gains further as CBN injects $457m in forex market
As the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) injected $457.3 million into various segments of the forex market, the Naira, on Tuesday appreciated further to close at 383 to US dollar, against 386 traded on Monday at the parallel market.
The new naira rate is an evident that the currency is likely to trade within a narrow range in the coming days, due to injection of dollars into the market.
The local currency, also, gained at the interbank market quoted at 305.45 compare to 305.60 sold on Monday, the same it stood when the market closed last week.
However, the new naira rate showed a significant appreciation against Euro but steady to the Pound Sterling, closing at 495 and 416, respectively against 418 and 495 traded on the first trading day of the week at the black market.
At the Bureau De Change (BDC) window, the Naira was sold at N362 to the Dollar, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N495 and N423.
The naira, also recorded similar gain at the Investor and Export window, with the opening rate of 382.69 but closed at 383.17 against 382.44 sold in the previous day.
The CBN Spokesman, Mr. Isaac Okorafor in a statement in Abuja, said that both the spot and forwards segments garnered 267.3 million dollars, while the wholesale segment got 100 million dollars.
Okorafor said the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Invisibles segments comprising basic travel allowance, tuition fee and medical got 50 million dollars and 40 million dollars respectively.
However, checks on the volume of trading on the Investors and Exporters foreign exchange window in the past three weeks on the FMDQ platform revealed that 600 million dollars had been sold by both the CBN and autonomous sources.
Okorafor expressed satisfaction with the level of activities in the market.
He said that the volume of activities being recorded in the Investors and Exporters forex segment was indicative of the fact that investors were attracted to the Nigerian financial market and the economy in general.
Meanwhile, forex traders confirmed that $100 million was auctioned for spot and forward settlements but have to be backed by customer demand.
In spite of putting the amount of forex sold so far at no less than $4billion since interventions began in February on the official market to try to narrow the spread between the two markets, the nation’s external reserve has recorded a total $4billion increase in 12 months, data collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) website has shown.
The reserves as at 15 May, 2017, stood at $30.78 compare to the corresponding year balance of $26.68, indicating a whopping growth of about $4billion.
Despite series of interventions and policy reforms in the Nigerian economy, specifically in the foreign exchange segment, the nation’s external reserves finally touched $31 billion, after gradual but persistent add-ons in eight weeks, representing highest in the last 12 months.
