Naira appreciates on CBN, oil firm sales of dollars

The naira appreciated slightly against the U.S dollar at the inter-bank market on Wednesday, after the CBN and some oil firms sold dollars directly to banks to help lift the local currency, dealers said. The naira closed at 157.10 to the dollar on the interbank market, recovering from the 158.18 it touched after the central bank announced its auction results, where it had failed to meet dollar demand.

A separate intervention by the bank after the auction helped correct for this lack of dollar supply. The bank sold an undisclosed amount of dollars to some lenders. The unit closed at N157.80 on Tuesday. At the auction, the central bank sold $180 million at N150.73 to the dollar, short of the $262.96 million demanded. Dealers said Shell, Chevron and Agip sold a total of $150 million at the inter-bank as part of their month end dollar sales, which also helped spur a rebound in the naira.