Forex intervention: CBN injects $314.74m, CNY 23.5m into Retail SMIS

In continuation of its intervention in the inter-bank foreign exchange market, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday, September 20, 2019, injected the sum of $314.74million into the retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) and CNY 23.5million in the spot and short tenored forwards segment of the inter-bank foreign market. The Bank’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okorafor disclosed that the intervention, as in previous sales was for requests in the agricultural and raw materials sectors, adding that the Chinese Yuan, on the other hand, was for Renminbi-denominated Letters of Credit.

Mr. Okorafor further expressed satisfaction over the stability of the foreign exchange segment of the economy, which according to him, was largely due to sustained intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria. He assured that the Bank Management would remain committed to ensuring that all sectors of the forex market continue to enjoy access to the needed foreign exchange. He reiterated that with improved inflow of foreign exchange, the exchange rate had remained stable around N360/$1 band for the past 30 months.

It will be recalled that the Bank on Tuesday, September 17, 2019, offered authorized dealers in the wholesale segment of the market the sum of $100million, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the invisibles segments each received the sum of $55 million. Meanwhile, $1 exchanged for N358 at the retail segment of the foreign exchange market, while CNY1 exchanged at N47 as at Friday, September 20, 2019.