October 2, 2019

Naira at interbank market closes N307/$ in September

The naira at the interbank market closed trading in September at N307 against the dollar; information made available on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s website has shown.

The N307 against the dollar reported by the CBN was the first time in September.

Before now, the CBN kept the naira hovering around N306.85 and N 306.95 against the dollar in September amidst sustained foreign exchange supply for various sectors of the economy to ease the pressure on the naira.

Checks revealed that naira at the interbank market commenced September at N307 against the dollar.

Our correspondent reports that the apex bank in September defended the local currency with $845.85m and CNY56.8m.

The apex bank in September had three times injected foreign exchange in its effort to stabilise the local currency against foreign currencies.

Over the past two years, the CBN’s foreign exchange reforms had resulted in improved foreign exchange liquidity and aided investors to access foreign exchange currencies at ease.

Our correspondent gathered that the apex bank on Tuesday, September 3, offered authorised dealers in the wholesale segment of the market the sum of $100m, while the Small and Medium Enterprises and the invisible segments received the sum of $55m each.

Also on Friday, September 6, the CBN injected into the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales a sum of $321.11m and CNY33.3m.

In addition, on Friday, September 20, the CBN intervened in the foreign exchange market with the sum of $314.74m into the retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales and CNY23.5m in the spot and short tenured forwards segment of the inter-bank foreign market.

The SMIS is targeted at the real sector of the economy including manufacturers, importers of raw materials and airlines.

A year ago, the CBN rate was N197 against the dollar.

At present, there are numerous exchange rates in the country: the official CBN rate, Business Travel Allowance /Personal travel Allowance rates stipulated by the CBN for banks, parallel market rate, Investors and Exporters window and the interbank rate, among others.