The Central Bank of Nigeria on Thursday said it would on Friday release the sum of $100m to authorised dealers to meet the requests of genuine customers in the interbank segment of the foreign exchange market.

The release of the forex, according to the apex bank, followed bids from authorised dealers for the amount.

The CBN Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Isaac Okoroafor, while confirming the release in a statement said no intervention was made on Thursday in the market.

The statement read in part, “the Central Bank of Nigeria has offered and received bids for $100m from authorized dealers in the interbank market to meet the requests of genuine customers.

“The sales will be settled on Friday, March 17, 2017 and no intervention was made by the Bank to meet requests for invisibles on Thursday.”

Okorafor reiterated that the CBN would continue to make necessary interventions in the interbank market to meet all legitimate transaction- based foreign exchange demands by customers.

The apex bank had in its last auction sale offered $150m to the interbank market with the highest bid rate at N335 to a dollar while the marginal rate was N320 to the dollar.

The CBN on Thursday said it had sold more Treasury bills than originally planned at an auction after it lured demand for one-year debt with yields above inflation.

The bank raised N253.8bn at an auction on Wednesday, N40bn more than it had offered to sell.

It offered the one-year bill at 18.55 per cent to raise N166.3bn, against a yield of 18.49 per cent at its last auction and higher than February’s inflation rate of 17.78 per cent.

The central bank has been selling bills with yields below inflation in recent months to curb borrowing costs as it aims to fund half of this year’s forecast budget deficit of N2.36tn ($7.50bn) through the domestic debt market.

Yields on the six-month bill were unchanged from the last sale at 17.20 per cent to fetch N48.5bn, while a N39bn bill due in three month was sold 13.60 per cent against 13.65 per cent previously.

Total demand stood at N216.38bn against N312.44bn at the last sale.

On Thursday, the Debt Management Office also issued more bonds than it originally planned at an auction after slowing inflation rate helped it offer debt at lower yields.

Source: PUNCH