The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday, January 11, 2019, injected the sum of $263m into the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS), being its first intervention in that sector this year. This was in addition to the sum CNY 39 million consummated through a combination of spot and short-tenored forwards, arising from bids received from authorised dealers.
The figures obtained from the CBN revealed that the US dollar-denominated interventions were for requests in the agricultural and raw materials sectors while the Yuan sale was for payment of Renminbi-denominated Letters of Credit for agriculture as well as raw materials. Mr. Isaac Okorafor, the Director, Corporate Communications at the CBN, said the move was in furtherance of the Governor’s avowed commitment to ensuring foreign exchange liquidity in the system as well as boosting trade and production.
With the rates closing at N359/$1 on Friday, January 11, 2019, Mr. Okorafor, expressed confidence that the CBN, in the weeks ahead, will sustain its intervention through the sale of foreign exchange to all segments of the market to meet all legitimate foreign exchange demand in the market while also striving to achieve exchange rate stability in the market. Okorafor also disclosed that the Governor, Godwin Emefiele, will further unfold the Bank’s plans for the year during the first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting for the year scheduled for January 21 to 22, 2019.
