Nigeria: Naira gains as NAFEX records $100.29m

Naira on Tuesday recorded marginal appreciation in the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window as the volume of dollars traded declined to $100.29 million.

Data from Financial Market Dealers Quote (FMDQ) showed that the indicative exchange rate for the I&E window, known as Nigeria Autonomous Foreign Exchange (NAFEX), dropped to N359.6 per dollar yesterday from N360 per dollar on Monday, indicating four kobo appreciation for the naira.

However, the volume of dollars declined by 39 per cent to $100.29 million from $165.29 million on Monday. But the naira remained stable at N370 per dollar in the parallel market.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday offered 195 million dollars in three segments of the Foreign Exchange Market (Forex) to boost liquidity in the operation. Mr Isaac Okorafor, CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, said this in a statement in Abuja. Okorafor said that in the wholesale segment of the inter-bank Foreign Exchange market, it auctioned 100 million dollars and also intervened in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with 50 million dollars.

He said the bank also offered the invisible segments, with 45 million dollars. He said the bank had kept fate with its resolve to ensure that there was sustained liquidity in the market following pressures on the market from those seeking forex for school fees and vacations.

He stated that the bank would also ensure that genuine requests for FOREX were met, as well as improved liquidity and flexibility in the market.

This comes on the heels of last week’s intervention in which the retail secondary market intervention sales (SMIS) received the largest allocation of about 264 million dollars.

The authorised dealers in the wholesale window had also received 100 million dollars. The CBN, in a bid to improve forex availability in the market and ameliorate challenges encountered by critical stakeholders, said payment for port charges to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) would be accommodated by the bank, using Form ‘A’.

The CBN further said that other agencies by oil marketing companies would also be accommodated by the bank, using the same form. The move by the CBN is to speed up operations at the ports, thereby enhancing the ease of doing business in the country.