Naira depreciates to $/N360.74 at Investors’ Forex Window, despite CBN’s $294.7m intervention

By FELIX OLOYEDE

Despite the injection of $294.7 million into retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) by the  Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday, the Naira depreciated marginally by 0.01 per cent at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) foreign exchange window, having opened at N360.18, traded high at N361.70 and closed at N360.74.

A total of $53.99 million was transacted through the I&E window as the market turnover rose by 295 per cent to $213 million.

The apex bank intervened with CNY 31.43 million in the spot and short-tenored forwards segment of the inter-bank foreign exchange market

Isaac Okorafor, Director, Corporate Communications Department, explained that the United States’ dollar intervention was for requests in the agricultural and raw materials sectors and the Chinese Yuan, on the other hand, was for Renminbi-denominated Letters of Credit.

He noted that the market remained stable because of the regular interventions by the Bank, adding that the demand management approach introduced by the Bank had yielded positive results.

Okorafor reassured that the CBN remained committed to ensuring that all the sectors of the forex market continue to enjoy access to the needed foreign exchange.

Meanwhile, at the parallel market, the cash and transfer rates remained unchanged at N359.00/$ and N363.00/$ respectively.

The Naira/Dollar exchange rate remain unchanged at N306.95/$ at the Interbank window.