Naira Gains as CBN Auctions $150m FX Forwards…

The naira appreciated slightly on the parallel market yesterday following last Wednesday’s sale of a total of $150 million through foreign exchange (FX) forwards by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Specifically, the naira strengthened to N444 to the dollar yesterday, stronger than the N454 to the dollar it was at some parallel market points in Lagos the previous day.

The CBN sold a total of $150 million to authorised foreign exchange dealers in the interbank at the highest bid rate of N335/$1 and a marginal rate of N320/$1.

Confirming the details of the sale to the dealers, the CBN acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, said the highest rate of N335 was the same as the last auction rate of March 8, 2017. He, however, added that there was a change in the marginal rate from N315/$1 during the last auction to last Wednesday’s marginal rate of N320.

Speaking further, Okorafor expressed confidence that the pressure hitherto faced by both small and big-end users will be totally overcome soon.

It would be recalled that the CBN, in the past few weeks, has been making offers and releases to the inter-bank foreign exchange market in its bid to sustain forex supply to different categories of users. The latest FX offer by the CBN took the total intervention since the changes to its FX policy was announced last month to $1.715 billion.

Meanwhile, Travelex with the approval of the CBN yesterday sold a total of $25 million to 3,124 Bureau De Change (BDC) operators. The development also helped to improve the volume available to sell to retail customers.

The President of the Association of Bureau De Change of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, said Travelex sold the dollars to his members at N381 per dollar.

Also, the CBN yesterday said it had offered and received bids for $100 million from authorised dealers in the interbank market to meet the requests of genuine customers.

The CBN spokesman who disclosed this added that the sales would be settled on today (Friday).

He, however, disclosed that no intervention was made by the Bank to meet requests for invisibles on Thursday.

Okorafor reiterated that the CBN would continue to make necessary interventions in the interbank market to meet all legitimate transaction-based foreign exchange demands by customers.