The $15,000 weekly Yuletide special intervention foreign exchange (forex) sales to Bureau de Change (BDC) operators commences today, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced.
Umar Abdullahi, CBN Director, Trade & Exchange Department in a statement, explained that with the approach of yuletide season and the resultant increase in the demand for Personal/Business Travel Allowances, the apex bank has in addition to the existing market days, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, introduced a special intervention day every Thursday. Each BDC operator will get $15,000 commencing today.
“Consequently, all BDCs should note that the cut-off time for receiving Naira deposits into their respective bank accounts for the Thursday’s special intervention shall be 10am on the Thursday.
“All operators are hereby advised to ensure strict compliance with the provisions of the extant regulations on the disbursement of forex cash to their respective customers as any case of infraction will be appropriately sanctioned,” Abdullahi said.
Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor, while delivering the annual lecture of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos, on Friday, had warned speculators not to bet against the Naira. Despite the uptick in the exchange rate last week, Emefiele said the Bank had enough reserve to defend the Naira.
It would be recalled that on Friday, November 30, 2018, the Bank injected a total sum of $331.22million in retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) and CNY51.86 million in the spot and short-tenored forwards of the inter-bank foreign exchange market.
