Nigeria's apex bank to meet upsurge of forex requests: official

Nigeria's apex bank would make a special intervention forex sales of 10,000 U.S. dollars to each of the 2,991 licensed Bureau de Change (BDC) on Thursday in its bid to sustain foreign exchange liquidity, an official said.

In a statement made available to Xinhua in Lagos, Nigeria's economic hub, Isaac Okorafor, spokesperson for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said the aim of the special intervention is to meet the upsurge of forex requests of low-end customers, which has been on the sudden increase in the past few days.

Okorafor said the special intervention does not in any way contradict the Bank's newly amended sales policy of trading not more than 10,000 dollars to BDCs once a week.

The CBN had last week increased forex sales to BDCs from 8,000 dollars once a week, to 10,000 dollars twice a week, amounting to 20,000 dollars weekly per BDC.

However, the CBN later changed its plans and decided to instead sell only 10,000 dollars once a week, which it did on Tuesday in order to reduce logistical difficulties.

The BDC operators had expressed disappointment over the reversal. They said 10,000 dollars a week was insufficient to meet forex demand at that segment, thus CBN plans to have a converged inter-Bank, BDC and parallel market rate may not be achieved.

Meanwhile, Aminu Gwadabe, the President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) said the apex bank will inject additional 10,000 dollars proceeds of International Money Transfer Services Operators (IMTSO) to 3,135 Bureau De Change Operators nationwide.

The move by the apex bank is to checkmate the activities of currency hoarders and speculators, he added, noting that the CBN's action justifies its determination to continue to strengthen the Naira and get it out of the grips of speculators and hoarders.

Gwadabe commended the "doggedness" of the CBN in its interventions in the entire official window.

The CBN had on Monday vowed to stamp speculators out of the nation's foreign exchange market through its interventions.

The move by the CBN to rightfully explore the BDC window in stabilizing the Naira exchange rate has shown the apex bank as a listening institution geared toward ameliorating the plights of FOREX end users.