Again, CBN Injects $195m into Forex Market

Gives guideline for returning unutilised forex
Obinna Chima
In continuation of its drive to ensure liquidity and stability in the foreign exchange market, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday injected the total sum of $195 million into various segments of the inter-bank foreign exchange market.

A breakdown of figures released by the CBN showed that the sum of $100 million was offered to authorised dealers in the wholesale window, just as the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) window was allocated the sum of $50 million. Those seeking forex for the purpose of BTA/PTA, tuition and medical bills, among other invisibles, received the sum of $45 million.

The Acting Director, Corporate Communications at the CBN, Isaac Okorafor, who confirmed the figures, said the bank’s continued intervention was aimed at strengthening the international value of the naira, while ensuring accessibility to the greenback by customers who required it for genuine purposes.

The CBN had last week injected a total sum of $195 million to the wholesale, SMEs and invisibles segments of the market.
But a survey of markets in the Bureau de Change segment (BDCs) in Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt and Kano yesterday, showed that the naira exchanged at an average of N360/$1 in the BDC segment of the market.

Meanwhile, in order to ameliorate the challenges in returning naira to banks for unutilised foreign exchange (FX), the CBN has released the rule for addressing the situation.
The central bank stated this in a circular titled: “Unutilised FX Returned to the CBN for SMIS Wholesale and Retail Interventions,” that was posted on its website yesterday.

The CBN said it took the decision following incessant complaints from Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) over the delay in getting naira value for unututilised portions of FX repatriated to the CBN.
To this end, it stated: “In order to ameliorate the current challenges in returning naira to banks for unutilised FX and to improve on the current settlement processes, banks are hereby required to batch all unutilised FX returned to CBN per session/auction with effect from 26th of June, 2017.

“In other words, where FX was purchased from CBN from a particular session, all unutilised portion of the session should be batched and forwarded to the CBN for settlement on a weekly basis.
“In the same vein, all inflows from the proceed of International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) should be batched and forwarded to the CBN for settlement on a weekly basis.”
It urged all authorised dealers to comply with the directive accordingly.