CBN Intervenes with $ 279.13m, CNY 46.92m in Retail SMIS

By Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

 The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again made interventions in the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) of the Foreign Exchange market totaling $279.13 million and CNY 46.92.

Figures of the sales consummated on Friday  revealed that the sum of $279,128,518.66 was injected to meet requests of customers in the agricultural, airlines, petroleum products and raw materials and machinery sectors.

CBN’s  Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okorafor also confirmed that the sum of CNY46,924,114.04 was for payment of Renminbi-denominated Letters of Credit for agriculture as well as raw materials.

Friday’s transaction was in addition to the $210 million injected into the Wholesale, Small and Medium Enterprises, and Invisibles segments of the market on Tuesday, February 5, 2019.

While expressing the satisfaction of the Bank’s management at the stability in the different segments of the foreign exchange market, Okorafor attributed the level of stability to the Bank’s transparency in foreign exchange transactions.

With the exchange rates closing at N358/$1 on Friday,  Okorafor, expressed confidence that the Naira will continue to enjoy stability, given the periodic interventions of the Bank in the inter-bank segment.