As part of its sustained efforts to ensure adequate liquidity in the nation’s foreign exchange market, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday injected $331.41million into the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales’ (SMIS’) segment of the market

The intervention came barely 48 hours after the bank sold $210 million in the Inter-Bank segment of the market to meet the needs of end users.

Confirming the intervention, the Bank’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, stated that the sale was to critical sectors, including agricultural, airlines, petroleum products and raw materials and machinery sectors.

Okorafor promised that the CBN would sustain its interventions in the market to prevent illiquidity and checkmate actions of speculators that could trigger undue pressures on the nation’s foreign reserves.

He maintained that the apex bank had enough to meet the foreign exchange requests of various customers, charging customers requiring foreign exchange to approach their respective banks with relevant documents to make formal requests and obtain their needs.

The CBN had a few days ago directed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) sell forex over-the-counter to travelling customers and non-customers of banks provided they present relevant and valid travel documents.

The Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had last Monday paid unscheduled visits to some banks in Lagos to monitor the level of their compliance with the directive.

It would be recalled that the bank had also mandated licensed Bureau de Change, BDCs, operators to henceforth access forex from the CBN, at least thrice weekly, failing upon which it warned it could review their licences.