In the last five months, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) injected $7.6 billion into the economy to stabilise the value of the naira.
CBN’s banking regulator’s monthly economic reports on foreign exchange market developments state that the regulator intervened in the markets with $1.65 billion in January, $1.39 billion in February and $1.82 billion in March, while the injection in April was $1.56 billion and $1.18 billion in May.
“Total foreign exchange sales to authorised dealers by the bank were $1.18 billion, a decrease of 24.4 percent below $1.56 billion in April.
“A breakdown shows that foreign exchange sales at the Investors and Exporters and interbank/invisible windows decreased by 37.9 percent and 0.7 percent to $0.16 billion apiece below their respective levels in the preceding month.
“Similarly, SMIS (Secondary Market Intervention Sales) and matured swap contracts fell by 7.0 percent and 71.4 percent to $0.64 billion and $0.10 billion respectively, compared to the amounts in April. However, foreign exchange sales at the Small and Medium Enterprises window rose by 8.4 percent to $0.12 billion in the review period”, according to the reports.
The CBN maintained the official rate of the naira to the dollar at N427.76 at the I&E (Investors and Exporters) foreign exchange window on its website; while at the parallel market, the naira was bought and sold for N690 and N700 on Thursday.
Earlier in the year, CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele announced that the apex bank would stop the sale of foreign exchange to Deposit Money Banks by the end of the year.
It stopped foreign exchange allocation to the Bureau de Change operators in 2021.
The CBN Governor launched its programme tagged “RT200 FX Programme” to boost foreign exchange supply in the country through the non-oil sector in the next three to five years.
He said that, after a careful consideration of the available options and wide consultation with the banking community, the CBN launched the Bankers’ Committee “RT200 FX Programme”.
“The RT200 FX Programme is a set of policies, plans and programmes for non-oil exports that will enable us to attain our lofty yet attainable goal of $200 billion in FX repatriation, exclusively from non-oil exports, over the next three to five years”, he said.
Emefiele said the programme’s five key anchors are value-adding exports facility; non-oil commodities expansion facility; non-oil FX rebate scheme; dedicated non-oil export terminal; and biannual non-oil export summit.
