17 July 2013, Abuja – The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, sold foreign exchange worth 300 million U.S. dollars at its 52nd Wholesale Dutch Auction System, WDAS, on Monday, it said.
The CBN said that the figure had remained the same for three consecutive times in the month. The naira, however, remained firm against the dollar at an exchange rate of N155.76, the same as on July 10.
Eighteen banks participated in Monday’s auction, a drop from 20 on Wednesday. The volume of forex sold had hovered between 300 million and 500 million U.S. dollars since May.
Meanwhile, a Professor of Microfinance, Banking and Finance at the Regent University, Gianfranco Vento, has said that the Nigerian microfinance industry holds a greater potential and if properly harnessed would contribute positively to the growth of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.
Professor Vento, who stated this while speaking on the forthcoming annual conference on Micro Small and Medium Enterprise, MSME, and agro-business management for developing economies in August 2013 in Abuja, disclosed that the sector if well developed, would create massive employment, thereby, reducing poverty and crime.
The theme of conference: “Creating New Thinking for Self- Sufficiency and Sustainable Growth” will hold simultaneously with a workshop on Quality, Green-Digital economy management in domestic-global market value chain.
The professor, who is also a visiting member of the working group for modifying the liquidity risk model for banks and leader of the modules ‘Microfinance’, ‘Global Banking’, ‘Financial Regulation & Corporate Governance”’ and ‘Financial Markets & Instruments’ cited enormous and well skilled Nigerians currently in need of start up capital for micro entrepreneurial businesses but not attended to owing to the present capacity of microfinance institutions in the country.
He said the foresight in developing the conference was to address not only the problem in microfinance, franchising, agribusiness, entrepreneur ‘MSME’ quality, green and ICT-digital but emerging issues that will help in diversifying, creating a sustainable economy and reducing fiscal pressure due in shortfall in oil revenue.
– Vanguard