Fakoyejo OlalekanOver $7.6 billion has been disbursed into the Nigerian economy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in five months in a bid to increase availability of foreign exchange for transactions.
The amount is said to have passed through authorised foreign exchange dealers, excluding the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators, who have been banned from accessing forex disbursed by Godwin Emefiele-led CBN.
In its monthly economic reports for the period of May 2022, the central bank disclosed that in January, $1.65 billion was injected into the economy, and $1.39 billion was disbursed the next month.
Nigeria’s financial regulator increased the monthly disbursement to $1.82 billion in March, but stepped it down to $1.56 billion in April, and further down to $1.18 billion in the second months of Q2 this year.
The central bank’s attempt to increase the foreign exchange to reduce pressure on the dollar has, however, failed to improve the Naira against the United States currency, having depreciated by about -0.7% during the period in review.
CBN’s report reads, “Total foreign exchange sales to authorised dealers by the bank were $1.18 billion, a decrease of 24.4 percent below $1.56 billion in April.”
Adding that, “A breakdown shows that foreign exchange sales at the Investors and Exporters and interbank/invisible windows decreased by 37.9 per cent and 0.7 per cent to $0.16 billion percent, below their respective levels in the preceding month.
“Similarly, SMIS and matured swap contracts fell by 7.0 percent and 71.4 percent to $0.64 billion and $0.10 billion, respectively, compared to the amounts in April. However, foreign exchange sales at the Small and Medium Enterprises window rose 8.4 percent to $0.12 billion in the review period.”
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