Naira strengthens as CBN injects $268.4m into retail SMIS

The Nigerian Naira over the weekend strenghtened at various segments of the foreign exchange (forex) market.

The local currency according to dealers exchanged for N360 to dollar at the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment of the market, while Chinese Yen (CNY) 1 exchanged at N54.

Naira closed at N358 to the dollar at the parallel market on Friday, trading below the usual N360/$1 as the election mood sets in.

It closed N470 and N408 against the Pound and Euro respectively.

On the official market side, it closed flat at N306.80 per dollar while the local unit at the Investors’ & Exporters’ FX Window (I&E FX), closed at N361.49 to the dollar from N361.71 it traded on Thursday.

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Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday, February 22, 2019, made an intervention of $268.4million in the retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) and CNY 46.3million in the spot and short tenored forwards segment of the inter-bank forex market.

This was disclosed by the Director, Corporate Communications Department, Central Bank of Nigeria, Isaac Okorafor, who revealed that the intervention was for requests in the agricultural and raw materials sectors.

The Chinese Yuan, on the other hand, was for Renminbi denominated Letters of Credit.

Mr. Okorafor further expressed satisfaction over the stability in the foreign exchange market which according to him, was largely due to sustained intervention by the Bank. He assured that the Bank would remain committed to ensuring that all the sectors of the forex market continue to enjoy access to the needed foreign exchange.