The Central Bank of Nigeria on Sunday vowed to sustain its
intervention in the foreign exchange market to ensure liquidity in that segment
of the financial sector.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr.
Isaac Okorafor, stated this in a statement issued in Abuja.
He said as part of its determination to make forex available
to genuine users, the apex bank on Friday auctioned the sum of $418m at the
retail segment at the rate of N310 to a dollar.
He gave the sectors of the economy that benefitted from the
intervention as aviation, agriculture, petroleum and raw materials/machineries.
The statement read in part, “In its avowed
determination to ensure ample supply of foreign exchange liquidity in the
market, the Central Bank of Nigeria on Friday, 7th of April, 2017 auctioned the
sum of $418m at a marginal rate of N310/$.
“This was in addition to the sum of $350m sold as wholesale
auction during the week. In the weeks ahead, the CBN will sustain its
intervention through the sale of foreign exchange to all segments of the
market.”
The statement said the CBN would sell short-tenured forwards
of seven-day to 30-day maturity to meet the demand of manufacturers and all
other foreign exchange users.
The apex bank said the injection of foreign exchange into
the market should reassure all users of its determination to continue to meet
all legitimate forex demand in the market.
It added that the intervention was part of measures to
achieve exchange rate stability in the financial market.
Ifeanyi Onuba
