The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has again intervened in the various tiers of the inter-bank foreign exchange market with $250 million. This is expected to lift the naira against the follar and other major currencies.
The Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales segment of the market received a total of $100 million; the Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs, window got $80 million while the invisibles segment, comprising Business/Personal Travel Allowances, school tuition, medicals, among others got the sum of $70 million.
Isaac Okorafor, CBN’s spokesman, explained that the regular intervention of the CBN in the forex market boosted liquidity in the market and had an overall impact on the economy, accounting for Nigeria exiting recession. Okorafor said the timely execution and settlement for eligible transactions as well as the forex available to the real sector and industrial capacities were factors that boosted the economy.
He said that Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor, had a few months ago predicted that the Nigerian economy would be out of recession at the end of the third quarter.