CBN resumes forex sales to banks

 The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it would resume forex sales to commercial banks. The apex bank told the lenders to fund their naira accounts to be able to participate in a currency intervention on the interbank market slated for today.

Although the CBN did not disclose how much it would sell, but one trader said the bank sold between $100 million and $150 million at its intervention last Thursday and this could be repeated tomorrow.

Last month the bank banned dollar sales to retail bureaux de change outlets, sending the naira to record lows on the black market and later stopped daily sales to the interbank market, all to conserve foreign reserves which are down to an 11-year low.

The local currency traded around a pegged rate of N198 to the dollar on the official interbank market on Tuesday, but was quoted at N305 on the black market.

The CBN had imposed some currency control measures to save the naira. In June, it curbed access to the interbank currency market for importers bringing in a variety of goods. In an effort to conserve its dollar reserves, the bank said importers could no longer get hard currency to buy 41 items, ranging from toothpicks and rice to steel products and private jets.

One of such measures –  the  total ban on the use of debit cards abroad, has caused panic in both the local and international markets with customers feeling the pangs of the policy, which was meant to conserve foreign reserves and protect the local currency.