In 10 months, CBN ‘has pumped $3.6bn’ into forex market

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reportedly injected $3.6bn into the forex market since February.

NAN reports that the naira has appreciated by 30.3 percent since the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) began its interventions at the foreign exchange market.

The naira had reached a peak at N520 earlier in the year before the CBN stated intervening.

The CBN provides forex twice in a week to bureaux de change operators and also created an investors and exporters forex window to provide forex for businesses.

“The CBN injection of over 3.6 billion dollars to meet the demand for foreign exchange resulted in the convergence of rates at the parallel market and the Bureau De Change segments,” the NAN report read.

“The apex bank’s intervention led to the current flattening of the rate at 362.5 to the dollar at the parallel market.”

Calls put across by TheCable to CBN spokesman, Isaac Okorafor, to confirm the $3.6bn reported by NAN were unanswered.

Sheriffdeen Tella, senior economist at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun, was quoted by NAN as saying the CBN interventions were made possible by the increase in the price of oil at the international market.

Tella said that the crude oil production output of two million barrels per day also meant more money for the nation.

He, however, that the recent production cut by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to 1.8 million barrels per day might affect the nation’s crude oil earnings.

He urged the CBN to continue to intervene at the official foreign exchange market sustain the appreciation of the naira across board.