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The Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday carried out wholesale intervention in the interbank foreign exchange market, providing a total sum of $370,810,810.79 to 23 banks to meet retail FX demands. The intervention comes after the apex bank, on Monday, pledged an effective intervention programme to ensure adequate liquidity and transparency to guarantee efficiency in the FX market.

According to the CBN, the banks received amounts ranging from $46, 512.50 to $15,578,081.51. Seven banks received $37,500,000 each, representing the full allotments of their respective bids. The transactions were completed at interbank exchange rates ranging from N315 to N360 per dollar.   

Isaac Okorafor, Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department at the CBN, said the CBN’s intermediation in the FX market was the first wholesale intervention designed to ease the pressure of access to forex by Nigerians. CBN said it will provide foreign exchange to banks to meet retail FX demands, including personal and business travel allowances, medical expenses, and school fees.

The apex bank said on Monday that it expects all such FX transactions to be settled at a rate not exceeding 20 per cent above the interbank rate.

Okorafor also said the regulator offered $500,000,000 for sale to the banks, but not all of them provided enough naira backing to pay fully for their respective bid amounts.  The CBN spokesperson also assured that the apex bank would continue to make interventions based on qualified bids from the banks on the requests of their customers.

The Acting Director urged market participants to contribute their patriotic quota in ensuring that the new measures put in place by the CBN guarantee the steadiness of the financial market as well as the growth and development of the economy to the benefit of all Nigerians.