The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will on Saturday pump more dollars into the foreign exchange market in continuation of its strategy to further strengthen the value of the naira.
According to a source in the apex the Bank, the CBN has planned the release of an additional $350 million bringing the total to $570 million in this week alone to further crash the value of the Dollar.
Already this has brought panic among traders and other market participants who are yet to recover from the losses some of them have suffered in the last two weeks owing to a sharp and sudden appreciation of the Naira.
Confirming the development, the Acting Director, Corporate communications, Isaac Okorafor, told our correspondent that, with improving reserve levels, the Bank was determined to continuously make forex available to all genuine customers through their banks, advising those hoarding the greenback to reduce their losses by selling their dollar stock.
Informed sources speak of the likelihood of a liquidity glut as banks are beginning to send out salespeople to scout for customers to buy the dollar in an effort to avoid losses arising from the expected further appreciation of the naira.
It will be recalled that since last Tuesday the CBN has so far supplied a total of $570 million to the market made up of $80m for Personal Travel Allowance (PTA), Medicals and school fees, $100m in wholesale forwards, an additional another $350 million planned for injection today.
Already there are heightened fears among traders and other market participants who are yet to recover from the losses of the last two weeks owing to a sharp and sudden appreciation of the Naira.
With N72 billion, 16 banks funded $220 million Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) allocations under the Forex Forwards policy meant to stabilise the naira, it was learnt yesterday.