The Naira, on Thursday, AUgust 11, climbed marginally to N395 to the dollar, at the parallel market up from the N394 to the dollar it closed the previous day.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, had intervened in the interbank forex market on Tuesday, August 9, to help support the naira after it hit an all-time low of N350 to the dollar in thin volume on that day.
The naira has been under pressure since the central bank floated the currency in June to allow it trade freely on the interbank market.
The currency has been hit by a plunge in oil prices, Nigeria’s economic mainstay, which caused foreign investors to flee bond and equities markets.
The apex bank in July told international money transfer operators to pay dollar proceeds from customer transfers into local commercial banks in naira, while selling the dollars themselves to bureaux de change (BDC) outlets.
On Tuesday the bank pegged the dollar transactions which banks can carry out with BDCs at $30,000 per week and set a margin for the banks to sell dollar to currency outlets at not more than 1.5 per cent over the rate at which they bought.
It hopes the move will help narrow the gulf between the official and black market rates and boost dollar liquidity, traders say.
The central bank set a margin of two percent over the rate at which BDCs sourced dollars from banks as resale premium to customers and pegged BDC disbursement at $5,000 per transaction to cover travel allowance, medical bills and school fees.
Meanwhile, the CBN yesterday advised interested International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) to apply for licence.
