The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), today intervened in the the interbank retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) segment of the nation’s foreign exchange (Forex) market with $340, 507, 376.51 and CNY69,858,087.15.

Today’s sale of the Yuan, which was offered for the spot and short tenored forwards, came barely a week after the apex bank commenced the maiden sale of foreign exchange in the Chinese national currency.

Figures provided by the apex bank on the interventions showed that the dollar-denominated sum was provided for consumers’ needs in the agricultural and raw materials sectors.

The Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department of the bank, Isaac Okorafor, stated that the sales in the Chinese Yuan were through a combination of spot and 15-day tenors for the payment of Renminbi denominated Letters of Credit for agriculture as well as raw materials and machinery.

He also confirmed that the requests attended to were bids received from authorized dealers, saying that the availability of Renminbi will, in line with the monetary policy objective, ease pressure on the Nigerian foreign exchange market.

Okorafor attributed the Forex market’s relative stability mainly to the continued intervention of the apex bank, complemented by sustained increase in crude oil prices in the international market.

This is even as he restated the apex bank’s commitment to ensure that all sectors of the economy continue to enjoy access to both dollar and Yuan-denominated Forex required for genuine business concerns nationwide.

It would be recalled that the CBN had on July 20, 2018, commenced its intervention in CNY sale in the Forex market in furtherance of the objectives of the Bilateral Currency Swap Agreement (BCSA) it signed with the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) on April 27, 2018.

Meanwhile, the Naira sustained its exchange rate stability against other international currencies, exchanging at the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment at N360 to the dollar, and N53.35 to CNY 1.