Naira ends week on strong note, closesat N385 to a dollar

Central Bank of Nigeria's efforts to salvage the naira yielded positive results as the nation’s currency closed at N385 to a dollar on Friday.

The CBN pushed in a total sum of $380 million into the forex market during the week and increased the forex allocations of Bureau de Change operators to meet the needs of customers.

This is second time that the allocations would be increased in recent times.The first been from $8,000 per week to $10,000 per week on March 30.

On Tuesday 18th of April, the CBN announced that she would increase the weekly allocation of BDCs from $10,000 to $20,000.

On the international market, the naira closed at N315.99 to a dollar, N404.5 to a pound and N338 to the euro.

At the parallel market, the naira closed at N385 to a dollar, N490 to a pound and N410 to the euro.

On April 12, the CBN made spot sales totaling $100 million to interested SMEs  through its newly opened foreign exchange window for small scale importers.

The CBN acting director of corporate communications, Isaac Okorafor had explained that the new window for SMEs was a means of providing an avenue to source forex for small scale importers.

Isaac Okorafor mentioned that no SME would be allowed to transact more than $20,000 per quarter.