The Central bank of Nigeria sold a total of $9.18billion to authorised dealers in the Nigerian foreign exchange market in the fourth quarter of 2018.
This amount represented a 16.1 per cent decline from the third quarter, 2018 level, but was 80.6 per cent above the level in the corresponding period of 2017.
The premium between the average inter-bank and bureau de change rates widened by 0.8 percentage points in the fourth quarter. The CBN, in its fourth quarter 2018 economic report, said the development, relative to the preceding quarter, reflected the decline in inter-bank sales and swaps transactions in the review quarter.
Of the total, the report said that foreign exchange forwards disbursed at maturity was $3.15 billion (34.3 per cent); sales to Bureaux De Changes, BDC, $2.98 billion (32.5 per cent); Investors’ and Exporters’ window, $2.09 billion (22.8 percent); interbank sales, $0.82 billion (8.7 per cent); and swaps transactions, $0.13 billion (1.5 per cent).
The CBN sustained its interventions at both the inter-bank and BDC segments of the foreign exchange market in the review quarter.
However, the average exchange rate of the naira to the US dollar at the inter-bank segment depreciated by 0.2 per cent to N306.70/$, relative to its level at the end of September 2018.
Similarly, the report said that, at the BDC segment, the average exchange rate depreciated by 0.9 per cent and 0.01 per cent, below the levels in the preceding quarter and corresponding period of 2017, to N362.42/$. At the Investors’ and Exporters’ window segment, the average exchange rate stood at N364.27/$, representing 0.5 per cent and one per cent depreciation, relative to the levels in the preceding quarter and the corresponding period of 2017, respectively.
“Consequently, the premium between the average inter-bank and BDC rates widened by 0.8 percentage points in the review quarter, from 18.2 percentage points at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018, but the spread between the average exchange rates at the Investors’ and Exporters’ window and the BDC segment narrowed further to 0.5 per cent, from 0.9 per cent at the end of the preceding quarter.
“Gross external reserves were $42.54billion at the end of December 2018. This indicated a decline of 0.2 per cent below the level in the third quarter of 2018. The external reserves position would cover 6.3 months of import of goods and services or 10.1 months of import of goods only, based on the estimated value of import for the fourth quarter of 2018.
