CBN withholds dollar sales to BDCs as dollar hits N271

Contrary to speculations that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will be releasing up to $90 million to Bureaux De Change operators this week, the Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has said it has not gotten any feelers of funding from the apex bank.

The acting president of the association, Aminu Gwadabe, in an interview, said although there were speculations that there was going to be funding from the CBN last week, he didn’t the CBN releasing the money.

Stating that this contributed to the firming of the value of the naira last week, he said the value of the naira had begun to drop as the market comes to the realisation that there may not be dollar inflow from the CBN.

The naira which had risen to an all time high of over N280 last week had by Sunday night garnered strength to around N260. It had however begun a descent yesterday selling at N271 by the close of trading.

Gwadabe explained that “people were thinking that last week would have been the week that the CBN would close their window, and up till now they have not announced on their website or informed us officially that the forex window have been closed. Because of the likelihood that CBN will intervene this week people started selling their dollars.

“Banks were recalling their credit from customers because of that we witnessed a crunch in the market last week and the banks were not willing to fund speculative activities,” Gwadabe stated.

Although the CBN has not officially announced that it would stop selling coring exchange to BDCs, there are indications that it would rein in its dollar sales as the foreign reserves of the country continue to depreciate. As at last Friday, the reserves of the country had dropped to $29.419 billion.

Information source:todayng

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