TheNewsGuru

Tag: Forex

  • Forex intervention: CBN sells $25m to investors, exporters

    T‎he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday commenced interventions in the new Investors and Exporters’ FX Window with the sale of 25million dollars to customers.

    The apex ‎bank’s spokesman, Mr Isaac Okorafor, in a statement in Abuja, said the window was established to boost liquidity in the forex market and ensure timely execution and settlement for eligible transactions.

    According to him, transactions under the new window include invisible transactions such as loan repayments, loan interest payments, Dividends, Income Remittances, Capital Repatriation and Management Service Fees.

    “Also eligible, are payment of Consultancy fees, Software subscription fees, Technology Transfer Agreements, Personal Home Remittances and other miscellaneous payments as detailed under Memorandum 15 of the CBN Foreign Exchange Manual.” ‎

    He said, however, it excludes international airlines ticket sales’ remittances.‎

    On the role of the apex bank in the new FX Window, Okorafor said the CBN would be a market participant at the window to promote liquidity and professional market conduct.

    Okorafor added that the ‎CBN had auctioned 150 million dollars to authorised dealers through the interbank wholesale window, however, only 96.37 million was taken.‎

    ‎Market reports in Abuja on Tuesday, revealed that the Naira sustained its value in the forex market, selling at N379 to the United States dollar.

     

  • Forex: Again, CBN releases additional $100m to stabilize Naira

    …as Naira exchanges for N390, N306 t0 $1 at parrallel and interbank market respectively

    The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has pumped a total $380million within two days into the Foreign Exchange Market.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the continuous release of Dollar into the foreign exchange market by the apex bank has further strengthen the Naira against major currencies.

    The first tranche of $280m was released on Tuesday, On Wednesday, the bank offered additional $100 million to authorised dealers to meet the 7 to 15-day forwards requests of customers.

    Okorafor attributed the inability of the authorised dealers to fully subscribe to the CBN to a surfeit of forex in the system, which may lead to further appreciation of the naira.

    According to him, the trend monitored by the Bank indicated that deposit money banks were now able to meet the forex demands of their customers within the time frame stipulated by the CBN.

    He said that the CBN will on Thursday, continue its sale of 20,000 dollars to Bureaux de Change (BDCs) for onward sale to small-end users.

    Okorafor said feedback on the Bank’s forex new window for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country revealed that majority of small importers were heading for a major boost in their activities.

    This he said was responsible for the current appreciation of the Naira, stressing that the Naira will continue to gain strength with the relentless efforts of the CBN to to supply the market with forex.

    The spokesman also reiterated the determination of the CBN to continue to intervene in the various sectors of the interbank forex market in order to guarantee access to all categories of customers requiring forex for legitimate obligations.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Naira on Wednesday closed at N390 at the parallel market and N306 to a dollar at the interbank market on Wednesday.

    Meanwhile the World Bank has applauded the strategy of the CBN to increase sales of foreign exchange to the interbank market, Bureau de Change as well as other segments.

    It however, stressed the need for the CBN to ease restrictions on access to foreign exchange, which continues to hinder rigorous economic recovery in the country.

     

     

     

    NAN

     

  • Forex: CBN issues new form for SMEs to facilitate easy documentation

    In order further simplify accessibility to foreign exchange by the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has introduced a newly designed form to facilitate minimal documentation.


    Confirming this new development on Monday, the apex Bank spokesman, Mr Isaac Okorafor said the motive behind the new form is “to provide for the foreign exchange needs of SMEs, including those in retail business and to reduce the rigour of too much documentation.”


    According to him, the Bank has decided to ease the difficulty usually experienced by these category of businesses.

    Mr okorafor further explained that “henceforth, all SMEs seeking to obtain foreign exchange for eligible transactions shall now fill the newly designed form with basic documentation only for the importation of goods and services.”

    With this, the SMEs would be accommodated under the SME Foreign Exchange regime recently introduced by the apex Bank at the prevailing rate to import eligible visible and invisible items, he noted.

    This new measure will take immediate effect and importers in this category would no longer be required to fill Form M.

  • Forex: CBN releases additional $250m for agriculture, airlines, others

    Forex: CBN releases additional $250m for agriculture, airlines, others

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday released another 250 million dollars on 7 to 30 day forwards for agriculture, airline, petroleum products and raw materials.

    The acting Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr Isaac Okorafor, said in a statement that the bank also called for bid for 100 million dollars wholesale spot for traveling allowances, medical and tuition fees.

    He said that the apex bank had also commenced heavy injections into the spot market in addition to the settlement of requests for wholesale spot bids for invisibles like school fees, medicals and personal travel allowance.

    It will be recalled that earlier this week, the apex Bank had disbursed 20,000 dollars each to the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators in two tranches of 10,000 dollars, to ensure liquidity in the foreign exchange market.

    On Monday, the bank auctioned 100 million dollars to be settled between one week and 30 days.

    It also auctioned 418 million dollars at N310 to a dollar to airlines, agricultural firms, petroleum and raw material importers in addition to the 350 million dollars it sold last week.

     

  • CBN to sustain forex intervention, releases fresh $418m

    CBN to sustain forex intervention, releases fresh $418m

    The Central Bank of Nigeria on Sunday vowed to sustain its intervention in the foreign exchange market to ensure liquidity in that segment of the financial sector.

    The Acting Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, stated this in a statement issued in Abuja.

    He said as part of its determination to make forex available to genuine users, the apex bank on Friday auctioned the sum of $418m at the retail segment at the rate of N310 to a dollar.

    He gave the sectors of the economy that benefitted from the intervention as aviation, agriculture, petroleum and raw materials/machineries.

    The statement read in part, “In its avowed determination to ensure ample supply of foreign exchange liquidity in the market, the Central Bank of Nigeria on Friday, 7th of April, 2017 auctioned the sum of $418m at a marginal rate of N310/$.

    “This was in addition to the sum of $350m sold as wholesale auction during the week. In the weeks ahead, the CBN will sustain its intervention through the sale of foreign exchange to all segments of the market.”

    The statement said the CBN would sell short-tenured forwards of seven-day to 30-day maturity to meet the demand of manufacturers and all other foreign exchange users.

    The apex bank said the injection of foreign exchange into the market should reassure all users of its determination to continue to meet all legitimate forex demand in the market.

    It added that the intervention was part of measures to achieve exchange rate stability in the financial market.

  • Forex: Again, CBN auctions $418m to stabilize naira

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has auctioned $418 million at a marginal rate of N310 to a dollar, to airlines, agriculture, petroleum and raw materials sub sectors.

    The CBN acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor said in Abuja that the $480m offered last week was in addition to the $350 million sold as wholesale auction for travel allowance and school fees at the same period.

    He said that in the weeks ahead, the CBN would further sustain its intervention through the sale of foreign exchange to all segments of the market, like the interbank and the Bureau de Change segment.

    “The Bank will sell short tenured forwards of 7 to 30-day maturity to meet demand of manufacturers and all other foreign exchange users.

    “These significant injections of foreign exchange into the market should reassure all foreign exchange users of our determination to continue to meet all legitimate forex demand in the market,” he said.

    Okorafor reiterated the bank’s commitment to achieving exchange rate stability in the Nigeria market.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the CBN in recent months had injected dollars to the inter-bank and Bureau de Change foreign exchange market in its bid to sustain forex supply to different categories of users.

    This translated to the appreciation of the Naira from an all time low of about N560 to a dollar, to N355 within two months.

    However, in the last two weeks, the Naira began to weaken again against the dollar, which was attributed to alleged hoarding of the greenback by commercial banks, and insufficient supply to the BDC segments and other stakeholders.

    To remedy this, the CBN had threatened to penalise any bank refusing to sell forex to customers.

    Also, forex supply to the BDC was increased from 8,000 dollars per week to 10,000 dollars.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the Naira now sells at N405 to a dollar in the parallel market

     

    NAN

  • CBN injects fresh $240m to boost forex liquidity as Naira exchanges for N388/1$

    CBN injects fresh $240m to boost forex liquidity as Naira exchanges for N388/1$

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday continued boosting the country’s foreign exchange liquidity with 240 million dollars, part of which 150 million dollars will go to dealers in the interbank wholesale window.

    Those who stand to gain from the sales through the interbank wholesale auction window include manufacturers, importers of aggro-machineries, plants and critical raw materials.

    The Bank’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor in a statement, said that the bank also released 90 million dollars to meet requests for invisibles such as travel allowances, medical and school fees.

    He said that henceforth, the apex Bank would sell 10,000 dollars only to low-end Forex dealers once a week rather than the bi-weekly sales it announced earlier.

    He said that the CBN had adjusted BDC sale days to Tuesdays only, to reduce logistic difficulties.

    According to Okorafor, the CBN has also directed all banks to pay cash over the counter to desiring foreign exchange customers to further ease the access of customers.

    He further urged customers to report any un-cooperating bank to the CBN through available platforms.

    The CBN, in the recent months, has made offers and releases of over 2 billion dollars to the inter-bank foreign exchange market in its bid to sustain Forex supply to different categories of users.

    Last week, the Naira began to weaken against the dollar, which was attributed to alleged hoarding of the dollars by commercial banks, in spite of receiving over 200 million dollars.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the Naira on Friday closed at N394 to a dollar.

    It, however, later showed signs of recovery, as it exchange for N388 to a dollar on Monday in Abuja.

  • We’ll release more forex to further weaken Dollar against Naira – CBN

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Sunday reiterated its determination to sustain the provision of foreign exchange (forex) with a view to ensuring liquidity in the market and enhance accessibility and affordability for genuine end users.

    The apex bank’s acting Director, Corporate Communications; Mr Isaac Okorafor in a statement on Sunday said the bank wants to disabuse the notion by market speculators that it wouldn’t be able to sustain its forex intervention.

    He said that the bank would again, early this week, inject more foreign exchange into the market, leading to a further weakening of the dollar.

    “This is in addition to the further increase in the sale of dollars to the Bureau de change operators from 8,000 dollars to 10,000 dollars per week,’’ he said

    Okorafor warned commercial banks and other dealers to desist from sabotaging the efforts aimed at making life easier for foreign exchange end users.

    According to Okorafor, the CBN had received complaints from customers over frustrations in getting foreign exchange for invisible items like tuition fee, medicals, personal and basic travel allowance.

    The Bank urged the general public to report it to any bank that failed to meet customers’ needs after due documentation.

    It once again reiterated its determination to deal with any official or institution found to be sabotaging the operations of foreign exchange market in whatever guise.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the Naira closed at N394 to a dollar on Friday, which translated to 10 per cent depreciation of what was recorded earlier in the week.

    The depreciation was attributed to the alleged hoarding of forex by banks rather than selling to genuine customers.

    Analyst believe that with the twice weekly sale to BDCs up to 20,000 dollars, the Naira is likely to appreciate in the coming week.

     

  • Forex: CBN injects $370m into market

    Forex: CBN injects $370m into market

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday carried out wholesale interventions in the interbank foreign exchange market by providing 370.9 million dollars to 23 banks to meet the visible and invisible requests by customers.

    Its Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor, said the bank’s intermediation in the market was aimed at easing the pressure of access to foreign exchange by Nigerians.

    He said that the CBN offered 500 million dollars for sale to the banks, but not all of them provided enough naira backing to pay fully for their respective bid amounts.

    Okorafor said that the qualified bids for dollars ranged from N315 to N360.

    He said seven banks received full allotments of their respective bids valued at 37.5 million each, while other banks received allotments ranging from 46, 512 dollars to 15.57 million dollars.

    He said also that the CBN had also made spot sales of 1.5 million dollars to four banks totaling six million dollars.

    “The Bank also offered 41 million dollars for sale out of which 35 million dollars was taken up for the payment of school fees, medical bills and personal and business travel allowances,” he said.

    Okorafor assured that the bank would continue to make interventions based on qualified bids from the banks on the requests of their customers.

    He said that the bank was more than ever ready to support the inter-bank market by ensuring liquidity and transparency to guarantee efficiency in the foreign exchange market.

    Okorafor urged all market participants to contribute their patriotic quota to assist in ensuring that the new measures by the CBN would guarantee the steadiness of the financial market.

    It will be recalled that the CBN introduced new actions on foreign exchange aimed at easing access to foreign exchange for personal and business travel as well as educational and medical fees, among others.

    As part of its new policy action, the CBN also directed all to open foreign exchange retail outlets at major airports as soon as logistics would permit them to do so.

     

    NAN

  • We don’t deal directly with bank customers on forex transactions – CBN

    We don’t deal directly with bank customers on forex transactions – CBN

    The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has said contrary to public opinion, it does not deal directly with any bank customer on forex exchange transactions.

    The apex bank noted that forex transactions are strictly restricted to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and their respective customers.

    This was contained in a statement released and signed by the apex bank’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor and obtained exclusively by TheNewsGuru.com.

    The statement reads in full:

    CBN makes further clarification on FOREX sale

    The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to a media report suggesting that the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice has issued a query to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over issues relating to the sale of foreign exchange.

    While it is perfectly normal for any agency of Government to seek clarifications on any matter from other agencies of Government, we wish to state that neither the Governor of the CBN nor the Director, Legal Services Department has received any communication with regard to the issue.

    The CBN, as a responsible and responsive arm of Government, will always provide clarifications on any matter within its purview for the purpose of educating and enlightening all concerned.

    Accordingly, we wish to reiterate our position by making the following clarifications:

    1. The CBN DOES NOT deal directly with any Bank customer on foreign exchange transactions. Such transactions are consummated strictly between the customers and their respective Deposit Money Banks (DMBs);
    2. The figures of FOREX sale published in national dailies or on CBN website, over which insinuations are being formed, were transactions consummated between the DMBs and their customers;
    3. Pursuant to our policy of transparency, we publish the reports of purchases and sales of forex between the DMBs and their customers, as submitted by the banks without editing. This practice of publishing the figures on our website has been on since October 2016;

    Following observations of different exchange rates after the last publication on our website (www.cbn.gov.ng), we called for explanations from the banks concerned.

    1. In response to our queries to them, apart from some observed formatting errors, the concerned banks reported that the returns were sent on the basis which the transactions were conducted. The transactions concerned were consummated in third currencies such as Japanese Yen and South African Rand (YEN/ZAR); JPY/NGN, EUR/USD, USD/ZAR. As a result, there is no way any DMB or the CBN will deal in forex transaction at the rate of 61kobo/USD, N18/US$1 or N3/US$1, as was erroneously reported.
    3. The aforementioned are third currency transactions and when properly translated, will be in line with the prevailing forex rate range in the interbank market. Consequently, to prevent any such occurrence in the future, the CBN has directed ALL Deposit Money Banks to render their returns in a uniform format converting all forex sales and purchases to NGN/USD. All third currency transactions are also to be converted to NGN/USD.

    Again, we urge all concerned stakeholders to always verify information on matters relating to the Bank before going public in order not to trigger volatility in the market.