Uche Usim
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Friday disclosed that it injected $355.43 million into the retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) in its resolve to guarantee liquidity in that segment of the market.
Figures obtained from the CBN on Friday revealed that this was done to meet requests in the agricultural, airlines, petroleum products and raw materials and machinery sectors.
The Bank’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, confirmed the figures, reiterating that the CBN interventions in the market were aimed at sustaining liquidity in the market as well as boosting production and trade.
He explained that, with the continouous increase in the country’s reserve, the bank is in a much better position to ensure liquidity in the inter-bank sector of the market and as such would continue to intervene in order to drive growth in the economy and guarantee stability in the market, particularly now that the economy had gained steam due to an upsurge in the earnings from the non-oil sector.
With the rates closing at N360/$1 on Friday, Mr. Okorafor, expressed confidence that the Bank’s forex intervention underscored its determination to maintain the country’s external reserves in order to safeguard the international value of the Naira.
Recall that the CBN, in its last SMIS in February 2018, injected the sum of $321.4 million in the interbank market, while also intervening in the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market to the tune of $210,000,000, comprising, $100million for the wholesale segment and $55 million for both the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles segment.