Victor Ezeja
In its relentless efforts to boost liquidity in the foreign exchange market and stabilise value of the naira, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has sold another tranche of FX to 29 authorised dealers.
The apex bank said a total of $148 million was sold to the authorised dealers, which include banks and licensed Bureau de Change (BDC) operators.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelAccording to a statement released on Friday, 26th July, CBN said it made the sales to the dealers on Monday, 22 July and Tuesday, 23 July 2024, between an exchange rate of 1,470.00/$1 and 1,510.00/$1.
The statement reads: “The Central Bank of Nigeria sold a cumulative sum of S148,000,000.00 in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market to Authorised Dealers on July 22 and 23, 2024.
“The sale of foreign exchange was to 29 Authorised Dealer banks at an exchange rate of 1470.00/US$1-1510.00/US$1.”
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“In addition, the CBN bought US$2,000,000.00 (Two Million United States Dollars) from one authorised dealer bank at the rate of 1,505.00/US$.
“The value dates for all the transactions held on July 22, 2024, was T+0, while that of July 23, 2024, was T+0.”
This comes as the value of the naira continues to depreciate.
Primebusiness.africa reports that the apex had last week Friday, 19th July 2024 announced that it sold the sum of USD$106.5 million to authorised dealers. A day before (18 July), the bank also announced that it has approved sales of $20,000 to be made to eligible BDCs at the rate of N1,450/$1. It said the BDCs were to sell to eligible end-users at a margin of not more than 1.5 per cent above the purchase rate from CBN.
In total, about $254.5 million of Forex has been sold to authorised dealers within the last two weeks to meet demands in the retail end of the foreign market.
Despite this effort, the value of the naira has continued to decrease in relation to the US dollar. At the close of trading on Monday, 22 July 2024, the local currency was N1,500 per dollar but depreciated to N1,609 per dollar at the close of trading on Friday, 26 July 2024, marking a 7.3 per cent decline in value at the official market.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
