29th March, 2024
By Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, said over $1.5bn inflow into the country has been recorded in the past few days.
This development, the apex bank’s Acting Director of the Corporate Communications Department, Hakama Ali, indicated that the CBN’s monetary policy efforts are yielding expected results.
Ali noted that from data available to the bank, the inflows resulted from a concerted effort to stabilize the foreign exchange market by the CBN.
The CBN spokesperson also noted that the naira has also continued to record gains in the Autonomous Foreign Exchange market, as it exchanged at N1,309/$1 as against N1,611/$1 in the second week of March 2024.
Ali therefore noted that Thursday’s rate indicated that the naira was headed in the right direction.
She also affirmed the commitment of CBN under the leadership of Yemi Cardoso to ensuring the stability of the market, and the appropriate pricing of the naira against other major currencies worldwide.
However, the development followed the decision of CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to effect a two-percent increase in its benchmark rate, from 22.75 per cent to 24.75 per cent at its meeting of March 26, 2024.
Cardoso told journalists at the end of the meeting that the CBN had cleared all verified foreign exchange backlog.
He said the development signals the fact that liquidity would improve in the foreign exchange market.
CBN also conducted the Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTBs) auction of N1.64trn on March 27, 2024, at stop rates of 16.24 per cent, 17 per cent, and 21.124 per cent for the 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day tenors, respectively.