The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
has said that the recent appreciation of the Naira against other currencies was
the result of its market monitoring and intervention.
The acting Director, Corporate
Communications of the CBN, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor on Thursday in Sokoto, refuted
the claim that illegal sales of foreign currencies at ridiculous rates was
responsible for the change in Forex policy.
Okoroafor also explained that
appreciation of the Naira was in no way connected to the allegations of illegal
sale of foreign currencies.
“I want to state categorically that
there is no relationship whatsoever between the allegations that dollar was
being sold at 61 kobo and the current appreciation of the Naira.
“What led to the appreciation of
the Naira was that the CBN did an intelligent work on the market and realised
that what was driving the demand on the Bureau De Change (BDCs) and parallel
market was speculation.
“We reasoned that since there is a
lot of pressure on the two segments from people seeking to buy foreign
currencies for BTA, tuition and medicals, that if we successfully address that,
the pressure will come down.
“Also, before now, the level of our
reserves was not enough to make us comfortable enough to really do the kind of
intervention that is required.
“We decided to do so now because we
are a bit more comfortable with our level of reserve,” he said.
Okoroafor said that since the new
Forex policy, the CBN had intervened with about 591 million dollars in the
market, which had led to Naira gaining strength.
“Let me also state as proof that
when we placed 500 million dollars in the market, only 370 million dollars was
taken.
“That tells you that the real demand
is 370 million dollars. When we placed 230 million dollars in the market, only
221 million dollars was taken.
“Anybody who has gone foul of the
law and the security agencies have caught up with him, should go and face his
or her case and stop causing confusion among participants in the market,” he
said.
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