In a sustained effort geared towards ensuring ample supply of foreign exchange liquidity in the market, the Central Bank of Nigeria on Friday auctioned the sum of US$418 million at the retail-SMIS (secondary market intervention sale) at a marginal rate of N310/$ (The airlines, agriculture, petroleum and raw materials/machineries sub sectors benefitted from the auction). This was in addition to the sum of US$350 million sold as wholesale auction, BTA/PTA, and school fees during the week.

In the week ahead the CBN will sustain its intervention through the sale of foreign exchange to all segments of the market i.e. PTA/BTA, Wholesale SMIS, Retail SMIS and the BDC. The Bank will sell short tenured forwards of 7- 30- day maturity to meet demand of manufacturers , and all other foreign exchange users.

These significant injections of foreign exchange into the market should reassure all foreign exchange users of our determination to continue to meet all legitimate FX demand in the market while striving to achieve exchange rate stability in the market.