18 March 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The Naira gained slightly on the parallel market following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s mid-week sale of $150 million through the foreign exchange (FX) forwards.
The Naira strengthened to N444 against the dollar on Thursday, stronger than the N454 to the dollar it was at some parallel market point in Lagos the previous day.
The apex bank sold a total of $150 million to authorised foreign exchange dealers in the interbank window at the highest bid rate of N335/$1 and a marginal rate of N320/$1.
Mr. Isaac Okorafor, the CBN acting Director, Corporate Communications, said the highest rate of N335 was the same as the last auction rate which took place on March 8, 2017.
However, he noted that there was a change in the marginal rate from N315/$1 reached at the last auction to last Wednesday’s marginal rate of N320.
Okorafor said the pressure hitherto faced by both small and big end users would soon be totally overcome.
In the past few weeks, the CBN has made offers and releases to the inter-bank foreign exchange market in its bid to sustain forex supply to different categories of users.
The latest FX offer by the CBN took the total intervention since the changes to its FX policy was announced last month to $1.715 billion.
