The naira fell 1.2 percent to close at 185.60 to
the greenback on Thursday, despite the Central
Bank of Nigeria intervening with dollar sales to
try to prop up the currency, dealers said.
The unit opened at 183.40 naira to the greenback,
the same level it closed at the previous day. But
quickly weakened to an intraday low of 186.30
naira in thin trade, prompting the central bank to
intervene, dealers said.
The bank on Thursday asked 21 commercial
lenders to bid for $500,000 each, in an
intervention move aimed at providing liquidity to
the interbank market and supporting the naira,
which has been hard hit by falling global oil
prices.
“I think central bank will try to control any
uptrend in the currency, to provide liquidity to the
market. But for how long is the question,” one
dealer said.
The Central Bank was forced to devalued the
naira two months ago to halt the slides in its
foreign reserves, after the country’s main export
commodity plunged. The bank devalued the naira
by 8 percent and tightened trading rules to try to
curb speculation against the currency.
But the naira has traded well outside its devalued
band of 160-176 – and reserves are still falling.
Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves on Jan. 13
were down 3.2 percent month-on-month from
December to $34.51 billion by Jan. 13 because of
draw downs to defend the naira, central bank
data showed.
At a separate dollar sale, the central bank sold
$249 million to lenders at 168 naira at its twice-
weekly forex auction on Wednesday to help meet
demand for the greenback, higher than the $200
million it earlier offered.
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