TheCable

About 24 hours after The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced fresh policy actions in the foreign exchange market, the bank has pumped $370.9 million into the forex market.

On Tuesday, the apex bank carried out wholesale interventions in the interbank forex market by trading a total of $370,810,810.79 to 23 banks “to meet the visible and invisible requests of customers”.

A source at the CBN said the qualified bids ranged from N315 to N360 per dollar, adding that seven banks received full allotments of their respective bids valued at $37,500,000 each.

“Other banks received allotments ranging from $46, 512.50 to $15,578,081.51,” the source added.

Isaac Okorafor, acting director, CBN corporate communications department, said the bank’s intermediation in the forex market was the first wholesale intervention aimed at easing the pressure of access to forex by Nigerians who intend to meet obligations that fall under visible and invisible needs categories.

He explained that the CBN offered $500,000,000.00 for sale to the banks, but not all of them provided enough naira backing to pay fully for their respective bid amounts.

On Monday, the CBN unveiled new policy actions to make forex readily available for personal and business travels, medicals and school fees.

As part of its new policy action, the CBN also directed all banks in the country to open forex retail outlets at major airports as soon as logistics permit them to do such.

In line with the new policy, the CBN also made spot sales of $6 million to four banks, and sold $35 million for the payment of school fees, medical bills and personal and business travel allowances.