22 February 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The local and international financial market products and services update.
NIGERIA: In keeping with its promise to ease the difficulties encountered by Nigerians in obtaining funds for foreign exchange transactions, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday carried out a special wholesale intervention forward sales in the interbank forex market by offering $500 million. But 23 banks were only able to take up $370m to meet the visible and invisible requests of the customers. On Monday, the CBN also sold $80 million to banks to meet the demands of their customers who had applied for forex for school fees, medicals, and personal and business travel allowances, out of the $125 million uncleared backlog for Invisibles.
FX: Offers for the greenback were recorded yesterday at NGN 510.
FIXED INCOME: $500m offered at the FX auction was to take out c.N180bn from the money market yesterday. O/N rate spiked to 150% (from 16% on Monday) as the only funding option for liquidity managers was the interbank market. Bill market came under immense selling pressure because of the poor liquidity conditions and bond market was not left out. We expect today to be calmer as banks will now be able to access the CBN SLF window.
UK: British lawmakers debated a call to block President Donald Trump from a state visit, putting Prime Minister Theresa May in an uncomfortable position as she seeks to strengthen ties with the new U.S. administration. The nonbinding debate on Monday came in response to a petition signed by 1.8 million people calling for Mr. Trump’s state visit to be cancelled and another with more than 300,000 signatures calling for it to go on. As the U.K. prepares to exit the European Union, Mrs. May has sought to court support from Mr. Trump—one of the few world leaders who supported Brexit—and said she wants to strengthen trade and diplomatic ties with his administration.
US: Almost everybody living in the U.S. illegally is now subject to deportation, and more undocumented arrivals at the southern border will be jailed or sent back to Mexico to await a hearing rather than be released into the U.S., under memos issued Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security. The memos implement a pair of executive orders signed last month by President Donald Trump, who said during the campaign that he would crack down on illegal immigration. Together, the memos amount to a major change in how immigration law is enforced, both at the border with Mexico and in the interior of the country. Under former President Barack Obama, undocumented immigrants who didn’t fall into one of the administration’s priority groups were generally safe from deportation.
COMMODITIES: Oil prices held near multi-week highs on Wednesday after OPEC signalled optimism over its deal with other producers to curb output to clear a glut that has weighed on markets since 2014. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate April crude contract CLc1, the new front-month future, was up 16 cents, or 0.3 %, at $54.49 a barrel at 0552 GMT (12:52 a.m. ET). On Tuesday, the March contract expired up 1.2 % after reaching its highest since Jan. 3.e LCOc1 was up 23 cents, or 0.4 %, at $56.89, having touched its highest since Feb. 2 at $57.31 in the previous session.
Macro Economic Indicators
Inflation rate (Y-o-Y) for December 2016 18.72%
Monetary Policy Rate current 14.00%
FX Reserves (Bn $) as at Feb 20, 2017 29,282
Money Market Highlights
NIBOR (%)
O/N 100.1667
30 Day 17.1739
90 Day 20.3381
180 Day 23.0330
LIBOR (%)
USD 1 Month 0.77722
USD 2 Months 0.85111
USD 3 Months 1.05011
USD 6 Months 1.35711
USD 12 Months 1.72400
Benchmark Yields
Tenor Maturity Yield (%)
91d 25-May-17 17.86
182d 17-Aug-17 19.73
364d 01-Feb-18 21.92
2y 29-Jun-19 15.85
3y 13-Feb-20 16.13
5y 27-Jan-22 15.93
Indicative Currency Exchange Rates
Bid Offer
USDNGN 314.50 315.00
EURUSD 1.0409 1.0611
GBPUSD 1.2395 1.2597
USDJPY 113.32 113.35
USDCHF 1.00705 1.0172
GBPEUR 1.1788 1.1992
USDZAR 12.9815 13.1849
JPYNGN 2.7297 2.8303
CHFNGN 310.14 311.83
EURNGN 338.92 340.28
GBPNGN 404.78 406.18