The Central Bank of Nigeria said it sold foreign currency worth $20,000 to each eligible Bureau de Change operator at N1,450 per dollar.
A.A. Mahdi, the apex bank’s acting Director of Trade and Exchange Department, disclosed this in a notice on Thursday.
According to the notice: “To this end, the CBN has approved the sales of FX to eligible Bureau De Change (BDCs) to meet the demand for invisible transactions. The sum of S$20,000 is to be sold to each BDC at the rate of N1,450/$ (representing the lower band of the trading rate at NAFEM in the previous trading day).
“All BDCs are allowed to sell to eligible end-users at a margin not more than one point five per cent (1.5 %) above the purchase rate from CBN.”
The development led to the naira appreciating significantly on Thursday to N1,565 per dollar at the black market from N1,615.
Similarly, the naira also appreciated to N1,566.92 at the official FX market, according to FMDQ data on Thursday.