The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) opened the foreign exchange market with the injection of $210,000,000 to sustain liquidity. Disclosing this to news men today, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor said the sum of $100million was offered to the wholesale segment, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment got an allocation of $55 million.
The invisibles segment (i.e. tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), among others) was also allocated $55 million. The Acting Director noted that the releases to successful bidders which have since been concluded are part of effort aimed at further enhancing ease of doing business in Nigeria. Hence, beside boosting liquidity in the forex market, facilitating trade and remittances for legitimate personal commitments are also expected to improve tremendously.
Speaking on market conduct, Mr Okorafor enjoined authorized dealers to abide by the extant rules of the forex market as CBN would continue intensify monitoring of the market. Meanwhile, the Naira maintained its steady rate against the United States Dollar, exchanging for N361/$1 in the BDC segment of the market .
