CBN sells $575m in May, highest in single month 

The Central Bank of Nigeria offered $575m in May, its highest greenback gross sales in a single month in 2024, in line with knowledge obtained from FMDQ Securities Exchange and reported by BusinessDay on Monday.

This quantity exceeds the mixed whole of $151m in April and $189m in March. Despite this improve, the CBN’s gross sales solely accounted for six.6 per cent of the whole market turnover in May.

The financial institution’s intervention got here as international funding inflows slowed, brought on by the instability of the naira and ongoing inflation.

The CBN’s transfer is aimed toward boosting greenback provide out there and easing stress on the international trade market.

According to the report, the CBN offered {dollars} on three events final week, with the single-day excessive in 2024 approaching Wednesday, May 29, when it offered $141m. The financial institution’s intervention didn’t have a long-lasting affect on the naira, which ended the week in worse form than it started.

It famous that “international buyers have grown chilly ft in direction of Nigeria as a result of naira instability, with investor inflows into the foreign exchange market falling almost 20 per cent in April.

“The local currency bond market is also not attractive to foreign investors anymore, with the inflation rate rising to 33.69 per cent in April.”

In its newest transfer, the CBN introduced that worldwide oil firms can promote their retained 50 per cent of repatriated export proceeds within the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market, aiming to spice up greenback provide and ease stress on the international trade market.

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