From Uche Usim, Abuja

Sustained intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the foreign exchange market has restored some level of calm to the sub-sector. 

Indications emerged last Thursday of excessive liquidity in the market as operators could only pick a little over $39 million out of the $100 million offered for bid by the apex bank. 

According to market analysts, With this development, Naira is set to firm up against major currencies like the greenback and Pounds Sterling during the week. 

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Recall that CBN  last week opened a special window for  forex window for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to enable them import eligible finished and semi-finished items not exceeding $20,000 for an enterprise per quarter.

 That was in addition to the special intervention in the Bureau De’ Change BDC) segment of the foreign exchange market which resulted in each operator accessing $20,000 as against the earlier stipulated $10,000 per week. 

Isaac Okorafor, the CBN spokesman explained that the bank’s special interventions were necessitated by its findings that a large number of SMEs were being crowded out of the forex space by large firms and also service genuine demand for invisibles like tuition fees, medical a and personal/basic travel allowance.