The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday injected $285.7 million into the Inter-bank foreign exchange market in order to ease the pressure of forex demand in key sectors of the economy. These sectors are agriculture, aviation, petroleum and raw materials sectors.
The amounts sold to each sector was in line with the amount of forex buyers in the respective sectors requested for through their commercial banks. The Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Isaac Okorafor, who affirmed the figure sold, went further to explain that the CBN is ready to cater for genuine forex needs in the economy through forex sales under the new flexible forex regime.
Okarafor also highlighted that the current process underlines the high levels of transparency of the Bank in Foreign Exchange Management in Nigeria today. Although the CBN still injects forex into the inter-bank forex market to maintain liquidity, the frequency of intervention as well as the sums involved have reduced as the initial forex scarcity has been dealt with and a near-convergence of Nigeria’s multiple exchange rates was achieved.