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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Wednesday, announced it had approved the sale of $20,000 to each eligible Bureau De Change (BDC) at the rate of N1,590 per dollar.
A circular issued by Dr Williams Kanaya, the Acting Director, Trade and Exchange Department at the apex bank said all BDCs are allowed to sell to eligible end-users at a margin of not more than one per cent above the purchase rate from the CBN.
The circular partly read: “This is to inform the Bureau De Change operators and the general public that the CBN will be providing additional liquidity to this segment of the foreign exchange market.
“To this end, the CBN has approved the sale of US$20,000.00 to each eligible BDC at the rate of N1,590/$. This is to meet the demand for invisible transactions.”
The statement said eligible BDCs interested in the transaction should make the naira payment to the CBN account numbers with them.
Analysts said that the apex bank’s latest intervention in the forex market is aimed at strengthening the naira which has been weakening against major currencies at both the official and parallel markets in recent days.
On Wednesday, the naira slid further on the official market, falling to N1,667.42/$1 compared to N1,658.48/$1 on Tuesday, according to data from FMDQ.
The local currency also weakened on the parallel market yesterday, as it fell to N1,705 per dollar compared to N1,675/$1 on Tuesday, traders said.
It was reported that prior to yesterday’s forex sale to the BDCs, the CBN had sold $20,000 to each eligible BDC at the rate of N1,580/$1 on September 6.
