The Naira, Wednesday, remained stable at N375
per dollar in the parallel market. The local currency has maintained the figure in the last
one week.
This strong showing is bolstered by the latest sale of
dollars to bureaux de change (BDCs) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
CBN had on Tuesday intervened in the inter-bank market to
the tune of $482.6 million in the first trading day after the Democracy Day
celebrations.
A statement issued by its Acting Director, Corporate
Communications, Isaac Okorafor, in Abuja said this was part of measures to
underline its determination to guard the international value of the Naira.
Okorafor said a breakdown of the intervention indicates that
the retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) was allocated $285.7
million, while the $100 million was offered in the Wholesale SMIS auction
window.
The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) window got an
allocation of $52 million, while the invisibles segment, comprising Basic
Travel Allowance (BTA), Personal Travel Allowance (PTA), medicals and tuition
fees, among others was allocated $45 million.
Okorafor said the interventions were in line with the bank’s
resolve, echoed by the governor, Godwin Emefiele at last Tuesday’s briefing of
the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.
While expressing pleasure that the intervention of the bank
had ensured stability across all segments of the Foreign Exchange market, the
official expressed optimism that the bank’s objective of exchange rate
convergence would be achieved soon.
By Wale Odunsi
