TheCable

The naira appreciated by one point against the US dollar after the Central Bank injected dollars into the Nigerian market on Friday.

Bola Onadele, managing director of the FMDQ, a regulator comprising main commercial banks and the central bank, confirmed that the apex bank  sold dollars but did not say how much.

“The central bank intervened on Friday … it sold dollars to the banks so hopefully trade will pick up,” he told Reuters.

Companies and importers have been struggling to obtain dollars because a sharp fall in oil prices has hit the oil-exporting nation’s revenues and naira currency hard.

“There were a few trades in the market, about three to five a day down from 80-100 on average,” Onadele said about trading in recent days.

On Thursday, Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, told Reuters that he was ready to inject liquidity if needed into the interbank market, which dried up this week following the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari on treasury single account.

The Central Bank has imposed currency and import restrictions to preserve the country’s foreign currency reserves.

Buhari has ruled out naira devaluation.