The Central Bank of Nigeria injected $4.37 billion into the foreign exchange market in the third quarter of 2020 as part of efforts to ensure the stability of the naira.

The CBN disclosed this in its third-quarter economic report. The bank said through its periodic interventions in the forex market, it continued to boost the supply side of the market, as COVID-19 crisis weakened the private sector supply chain segment of the market. Part of the report read, “During the third quarter of 2020, total foreign exchange sales to authorised dealers by the bank amounted to $4.37 billon, a decline of 2.3 per cent from the level in the preceding quarter.

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“This was attributed largely to the decrease in wholesale forward intervention and interbank sales. The total foreign exchange sales represented a decrease of 56.4 per cent, compared with the corresponding quarter of 2019.”

It added, “Further disaggregation showed that matured swap transactions and SMIS intervention rose by 50.8 per cent and 0.7 per cent to $1.24 billion and $1.96bn, from the levels in the preceding quarter.