The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has injected $148 million into the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) through 29 authorized dealers to enhance liquidity.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!According to a statement from the CBN, the transactions, conducted on July 22 and 23, 2024, involved selling dollars at exchange rates ranging from N1,470.00/$ to N1,510.00/$.
Hakama Sidi Ali, acting director of the CBN’s Corporate Communications Department, stated that the bank aims to stabilize the foreign exchange market. The statement emphasized the CBN governor’s commitment to addressing the supply gap and ensuring market stability.
The CBN has been intermittently selling dollars to authorized dealers to mitigate FX market volatility and support the naira. On July 12, the bank sold $122.67 million to 46 dealers over two days. Additionally, on July 18 and 19, 2024, $106.5 million was sold to 29 dealers at rates between N1,498.00/$ and N1,530.00/$.
Despite these efforts, the naira has continued to weaken, falling to a four-month low of 1,603.80 to the dollar at the NAFEM on Thursday. The local currency is trading between N1,650 and N1,680 in the black market.
The naira’s decline has made it the second worst-performing currency globally in 2024, according to Bloomberg, a significant drop from its earlier high performance this year.
