Forex: CBN gives Retail SMIS $343.06m boost 

The retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) has received a boost of $343.06 million from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), following the Bank’s intervention in the Foreign Exchange market on Thursday, June 14, 2018.

Figures obtained from the Bank indicate that the amount released was for requests in the agricultural, airlines, petroleum products and raw materials and machinery sectors. Confirming the figures, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications at the CBN, Isaac Okorafor, noted that the continued interventions of the Bank were in line with the assurances made by the Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to sustain market liquidity in order to boost production and trade as well as maintain stability in the forex market.

Speaking further, Okorafor assured that the CBN remained committed to ensuring that all the sectors continue to enjoy access to the foreign exchange required for the business concerns. It will be recalled that on Tuesday, June 12, 2018, the Bank injected the sum of $210 million into the Wholesale segment of the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market.  Meanwhile, the naira exchanged at N362/$1 in the BDC segment of the market on Thursday, June 14, 2018.