The Central Bank of Nigeria sold $4.47bn forex to authorised dealers between April and May.

The CBN’s May report on foreign exchange market developments stated that, “The bank continued to intervene in the foreign exchange market to further sustain the improved liquidity and relative stability in the market.

Thus, a cumulative sum of $2.04bn was sold by the bank to authorised dealers in May 2019, compared with $2.43bn supplied in April 2019.

“This indicated a decline of 16.1 per cent and 42.4 per cent below the levels in the preceding month and the corresponding period of 2018, respectively.

Interbank sales fell by 10.0 per cent to $0.09bn, compared with the level in the preceding month.

“However, BDC sales rose by 6.3 per cent to $1.05bn, while swaps transaction remain unchanged at the preceding month’s level of $0.01bn.”

The CBN added that average exchange rate of the naira to the US-dollar, at the inter-bank segment, was N306.95/$, representing an appreciation of 0.003 per cent and 0.4 per cent, compared with the levels in the preceding month and the corresponding period of 2018, respectively.

The average rate at the Bureau De Change segment, at 360.00/$,depreciated by 0.3 per cent, relative to the level at the end of the preceding month, but appreciated by 0.7 per cent, relative to the level at the end of the corresponding period of 2018.

At the ‘Investors’ and ‘Exporters’ window, the average exchange rate of the naira vis-à-vis the dollar, at N360.74/$, appreciated by0.01 per cent and 0.06 per cent above the levels in the preceding month and the corresponding period of 2018, respectively.

Consequently, the premium between the exchange rates at the interbank and BDC segments widened by 0.3 percentage point to 17.2 per cent from 16.95 per cent in April 2019.

The premium between the BDC and I&E rates narrowed by 0.1 percentage point, compared with the preceding month’s level.