Naira continues to gain against dollar

Posted on June 5, 2017

The Naira appreciated to 374 to US dollar on Thursday.

The local currency had a good week, maintaining its grip against the greenback.

Naira’s strength is bolstered by the ​sale of dollars to bureaux de change (BDCs) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)​ on Tuesday.

CBN had intervened in the inter-bank market to the tune of $482.6 million in the first trading day after the Democracy Day celebrations.

A statement issued by its Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, in Abuja said this was part of measures to underline its determination to guard the international value of the Naira.

Okorafor said a breakdown of the intervention indicates that the retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) was allocated $285.7 million, while the $100 million was offered in the Wholesale SMIS auction window.

The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) window got an allocation of $52 million, while the invisibles segment, comprising Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), Personal Travel Allowance (PTA), medicals and tuition fees, among others was allocated $45 million.

Okorafor said the interventions were in line with the bank’s resolve, echoed by the governor, Godwin Emefiele at last Tuesday’s briefing of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.