CBN injects $317.52m, CNY 58.40m into Retail SMIS

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has continued its intervention in the retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) by injecting a total of $317.52million in that segment of the market in addition to CNY58.40 million in the spot and short-tenored forwards segment.  The figures obtained from the apex Bank on Friday, September 21, 2018, revealed that the US dollar-denominated interventions were only for actors in the agricultural and raw materials sectors while the Yuan was for Renminbi denominated Letters of Credit.  Confirming the figures, the CBN’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor said the Bilateral Currency Swap Agreement (BCSA) with the Peoples’ Bank of China had continued to receive encouraging responses from customers. 

While noting that Friday’s sale was the fifth in the series of interventions, he said the BCSA was achieving its major objectives of reducing the use and influence of a third currency transactions; reducing the pressure on the naira exchange rate; easing trade transactions between Nigeria and China and maintaining financial market stability in Nigeria. Mr. Okorafor further assured that the CBN would remain committed to ensuring that all the sectors of the foreign exchange market continue to enjoy access to the needed foreign exchange by Nigerians.

It will be recalled that the Bank on Tuesday, September 18, 2018 intervened in the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market to the tune of $210 million. Meanwhile, $1 exchanged for N361 at the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment of the foreign exchange market, while CNY 1 exchanged for N53.