The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has pumped $180 million into the foreign exchange, forex, market for settlement of various transactions, the third of its intervention within one week. Isaac Okoroafor, acting director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, explained that the sum of $100 million was released into the wholesale forwards segment of the market, while additional $80 million was given to banks for the settlement of dollar demands for school fees, medicals and Personal Travel Allowance, among others.
According to Okoroafor, the CBN is determined to increase liquidity in the foreign exchange market, hence its latest intervention. He was emphatic that the bank remained committed to providing enough forex for legitimate businesses remained unshaken, noting that the bank would do everything possible to ensure the steady supply of forex to the market. The CBN had attributed the huge dollar demands to activities of speculators and hoarders.
This is third intervention by the apex bank within a short space of time. Last week, the CBN sold $500 million to banks, even though some of them could not provide enough naira backing to pay fully for their respective bid amounts. In the second intervention, a total of $221.3 million was released by the apex bank to 16 banks.
Okoroafor is confident that the CBN would continue to make interventions, based on qualified bids from banks on the requests of their customers.